The trials of life

m^^^

L [ B R.ARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

or ILLINOIS

G 8G«33t

I,

THE TRIALS OF LIFE.

BY THE

AUTHOR OF « DE LISLE/

All suffering doth destroy, or is destroy'd.

Even by the sufferer ; and, in each event
Ends :— Some, with hope replenish'd and rebuoj'd.

Return to whence they came — with like intent.
And weave their web again ; some, bow'd and bent.

Wax gray and ghastly, withering ere their time.
And perish with the reed on which they leant ;

Some seek devotion, toil, war, good or crime,
According as their souls wereform'd to sink or climb.

4th Canto or Childe Harold.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

EDWARD BULL, HOLLES STREET.

1829.

LONDON :
PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY,

Dorset Street, Fleet Street.

v./

TO

^-

CAROLINE

"1 DUCHESS OF ARGYLE,

Ci THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE (bY PERMISSION)

MOST RESPECTFULLY

DEDICATED

WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF ADMIRATION' AND

^ GRATITUDE,

: BY HER grace's

^ MOST OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT,

1

'\ THE AUTHOR.

o

Z

r<

r

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LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER I.

In a thickly wooded fertile vale in a wes-
tern county of England, the ancient castle of
the Earls of Amesfort reared its lofty battle-
ments. The venerable pile had almost the
appearance of a ruin, but so extensive was the
range of building, and so much was concealed
by the massy foUage of spreading cedars, that
the present Earl had it in his power to exercise
the rights of hospitality upon nearly as large a
scale as his ancestors, who, in feudal days, had so
oft convened their vassals, and marshalled them
on the verdant lawn without the castle gates,
prepared alike for defence or aggression, as cir-
VOL. I. iJ

2 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

cumstances, or the caprice of their liege Lord
dictated.

It was not the clamorous mirth of boors that
now echoed in the festive hall : the voices that
rung through its arched roofs bore on the am-
bient air no sound of war and rapine, although
its walls were yet covered with ancient weapons
of defence, and its warlike appearance scarce
suited the present moment of peaceful rejoicing.
The heir to Amesfort Castle had attained his
fifth year, and for the first time since the mar-
riage of the Earl, that nobleman revisited the
abode of his youth, and presented his boy to
those over whom he would one day preside.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and the
rich vale glowed beneath the influence of a set-
ting sun, whose beams caught yet more strongly
projecting parts of the massy building, or glitter-
ed at intervals on the blue waters of a rivulet,
which, deep in the hollow, broke over fragments
of rock and stones, with a soothing murmur. A
slight shower had refreshed the verdure, and
given fragrance to the shrubs : sounds of music
from unseen performers floated on the air ; and

LORD AMESFORTS FAMILY. 3

to complete the landscape, slowly winding round
a distant eminence, a group appeared, not un-
worthy the pencil of Guido. A young girl, of
the most picturesque appearance, was carefully
conducting an ass, which bore on its patient
back a child hardly eight years old. They
were preceded by two figures of peculiar in-
terest ; one springing into manhood, erect and
noble, proud in superior strength and conscious
rectitude, tenderly, yet reverently supporting
the feeble steps of the other, in whose fragile
outline and faded features, traces were yet visi-
ble of a beautiful female. She was still young ;
the gazer would have said, far too young to
be the mother of him on whose arm she leant ;
but then he had not watched her full blue eye
rest upon him, in the agony of that hope which
borders on despair ; that look which reveals
the incessant solicitude and smothered anxiety
of maternal love.

For a moment the party paused, ere they

descended into the vale. The young girl leant

carelessly against the animal she was guiding,

and Adolphus gathered flowers by the side of

B 2

i LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

the bank, that had caught the fancy of the
child. Did she who stood alone on the verge
of the dell rejoice in the vivid colours of the
horizon ? Did her eye dwell on the beauty of
the scene, and her ear take in with gladness the
notes of joy that rose from the valley ? One
look of recognition she took of spots once dear;
busy memory peopled the landscape with forms
long numbered with the dead ; one short mo-
ment brought back a period she had almost
deemed forgotten, but the ghost of former
times only for a fleeting instant usurped the
place of present sorrow, and, recalled to herself,
she bowed her head upon her breast, silently
wiped off the tear that had gathered in heT eye,
and uncomplainingly pursued her way.

They reached the castle gates, and a shudder
crept over the frame of Emily Montresor. Her
son felt the arm tremble that rested on his, and
fondly he pressed it to his own beating heart.
Adolphus sympathised keenly in the sorrow
which sprung from their approaching separa-
tioiij but he little guessed at all the thoughts
which racked the heart of his drooping parent.

LORD AMESFORTS FAMILY. 5

The portals were flung open wide, on this day
of festivity, and Mrs. Montresor leaned for a
moment against the base of the gloomy arch,
ere she found breath to speak that painful fare-
well, which she believed to be the last.

The tall slender figure, which in the dark
and frowning entrance looked more like a wan-
dering ghost ; the countenance cold, pallid, still
enough for death, yet not quite insensible, as
if it well retained the memory of earthly woe,
formed a striking contrast to the bright and
blooming features of Adolphus, whose towering-
form, full of vigour and grandeur, betrayed the
unbroken mind and dauntless spirit within.

"' Let me see you within the castle walls, my
son, ere I depart f' feebly articulated Mrs.
Montresor. " A little rest upon this stone
utU revive me, and I shall be more easy when
I know you safe.""

" Safe, my dear mother !'^ re-echoed Adol-
phus, smihng through the tears he would not
permit to escape from his eyes, " how can I be
otherwise than safe every where ?'^ but marking
the deep depression of his mother, he feared

6 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

to oppose her, and with one hasty embrace, and^
one earnest entreaty that she would let little
Fanny walk home, and take her place on their
gentle animal, he sprung up the steep ascent
which, worked through the solid rock, led to the
Castle of Amesfort, and an abrupt turn in the
road withdrew him from that watchful gaze
which he preferred to every other.

Adolphus was gone, and Emily closed her
eyes — what more had she to see ? " Mother,"
said the eldest girl timidly, " had we not better
move ? — a little further on is a good seat to rest
on, and the air is not there so oppressive :" and
she glanced around her a look of scorn and
defiance, that in her brother's less gentle coun-
tenance would have been hatred.

"I did not feel it,'' said Mrs. Montresor,
in that tone of deep tranquil despondency,
which had so often struck on the heart of her
daughter, but never more deeply than now.
She arose, and calmly and steadily retrod the
path she had so feebly paced before. She did
not once lift her head to survey the scenery:
ishe looked not back when she had gained the

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 7

spot at which she had paused, on her road to
the castle : her step was slow, but certain ; her
slender form more erect, though her eyes sought
the ground. Her sacrifice was complete; it
could not be retracted — nay, she wished it not
to be retracted ; this trial at least was over,
and those that yet might follow, could not be
like it.

" He was my pride, my glory ,"'' thought the
wretched mother ; " how could / presume to
glory in any thing ? least of all in those, whose
innocent lives I have perhaps steeped in bitter-
ness ;"" and folding her garment close round
her shivering frame, she shrank from the joy-
ous tones of little Fanny, who bounded up to
her with childish playfulness, while her elder
sister eagerly sought to divert and arrest her
attention. The twilight had deepened into
shade, but the moon speedily arose, and guided
them to their lowly habitation, where to the
grief of jNIiss ^lontresor, preparations were
making for the speedy departure of its present
tenants.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER II.

Adolphus lingered at the castle door, to
shake off the unwonted sadness that stole upon
him, on taking leave of his mother. He had
often parted from her before, and that to go to
foreign lands ; but he had never left her look-
ing so ill, so weak, so exhausted. There was
something too that oppressed him in this new
way of entering the world, under the protection
of one, highly spoken of indeed, of ancient fa-
mily and illustrious descent ; but who, although
his guardian, appeared more inclined to stretch
oiit the hand of ostentatious protection, than to
greet him on a friendly and equal footing.

'* If,'"' thought Montresor, "I find nothing but
a patron in this haughty Earl of Amesfort, I
Avill return to my mother, or go into the

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 9

army ;"' and with the lofty ideas of indepen-
dence floating in his mind, he pulled the bell
with a force which electrified half-a-dozen idle
servants, and brought them in haste to attend
the summons. Uncertain daylight yet lingered
in the halls ; but when Adolphus reached the
inner apartments, he found it entirely excluded,
and replaced by candelabras, lamps, and vases
of transparent alabaster, which latter shed a
strong though not dazzling light, while the
glare of the others was softened by the old and
gloomy hangings on which it fell.

" Would you choose to see my Lord ?'"' asked
a solemn-looking butler; " or would you rather
di'ess first.'''" and he cast a glance of superci-
liousness at the simple attire of the stranger.
The expression was not lost on Adolphus, and he
half smiled, as he repeated his wish to see the
Earl. His was not the pride prone to take
offence, and perpetually exacting what it fears
it has no certain right to. He possessed enough
to teach him to rely upon. his owti opinion; and
while he granted to others the right he claimed
for himself, he saw no reason for subjecting
B 5

10 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

himself to the influence of any one. Of out-
ward forms, however, he speedily found the
domestic knew more than he did; for when he
opened the huge folding-doors, and announced
the stranger''s name, in a voice as deep and
loud as if he had thought it of consequence?
Adolphus quickly perceived he was the only
one of the party whose dress bordered on the
peasant's garb.

A magnificent saloon, superbly furnished,
was lighted up with uncommon brilliancy, and
feathers and diamonds, which young Montresor
had simply thought confined to a court, gave
additional effect to the whole. The EarFs back
was to Adolphus as he entered, but turning,
almost before the name reached him, he bowed
with more than wonted courtesy, and address-
ing him with " You do not know the Countess,
I believe,"' led him up to the top of the room,
where, half-concealed behind her harp, sat one
of the most lovely women that had ever caught
the eye of Montresor.

" Lady Amesfort,*" said the Earl coldly,
" give me leave to present my ward and god-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 11

son, Mr. Montresor. Lord De Calmer," he
added, slightly touching a young man, who
stood beside the Countess. Adolphus bowed,
and for a moment waited in respectful silence
to be addressed by either of them ; but Lady
Amesfort having honoiu-ed the introduction by
a slight inclination of her beautiful head, re-
sumed her conversation with the person next
her, and the young man had scarcely by a look
deigned to acknowledge it. In this awkward
predicament the novice looked round for the
Earl as a resource, but he was gone ; and the
next thing to have recourse to was the music
scattered on the piano-forte. He had very di-
ligently turned over the leaves of all that was
on a stand open beside him, and, if in the course
of the operation he had not acquired much
knowledge even of the names of the composers,
he had at least shaken off the first feeling of
mauvaise honte that had ever attacked him.

" Do you play, Mr. Montresor V said the
Countess, striking a few chords. Adolphus
replied in the negative, but his eye followed
her fingers on the harp as if soliciting what he

12 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

ventured not to ask. She complied with the
unexpressed wish, and when she had done, ex-
claimed, " Now I knotv you play, nor will I
suffer you to escape me, for I am to be denied
nothing" to-day !''"' There was a mingled play-
fulness and feeling in her manner which Adol-
phus found irresistible.

" I will accompany you, if you like,"*"* said
he, taking up a flute that had been flung on a
chair ; and Lady Amesfort began a short piece
on the piano, which Adolphus had often played
with his mother.

" Henry," said the Countess, when they had
concluded, " you have not sung to-night.""

Lord De Calmer started as from a reverie ;
" I have sung to the child,'"* said he, " until I
am hoarse C and he smiled with a look of in-
eifable sweetness that struck Montresor, for he
had somewhere seen such an expression, and
surely, he thought, it must have been on some
well-known face, though at the moment he was
at a loss to apply it.

" I am afraid,"*"* said Lady Amesfort, " I
shall not amuse you as much as you dehghted-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 13

my child, but here's for a trial at least;"" and
she began an Italian air, to which Adolphus
was partial, and in which he could hardly re-
frain from joining.

" And will not you, too, sing?"" she asked,
observing the fixedness of his attention.

" Sing here?'" said Adolphus in an under
tone, looking round on the brilliant assembly
with something of scorn on his beautiful fea-
tures.

" Why not ?''^ replied the Countess ; " peo-
ple who hke music will listen, and those who do
not will not hear.''

"" Am I then very fastidious in requiring
something more than not being heard ? Words
may be lost, — it is but the trouble of saying them
over again, or the forgetting you ever uttered
them, — but sounds require sympathy. Music
is either a noise, or a sacred thing, and in such
a place as this it can liardly be the latter."

" Was it among the mountains of Switzer-
land that you acquired this musical enthu-
siasm .^" asked De Calmer ; "or is it the spon-
taneous growth of the soil .''"

14 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

" What little I possess,"" replied the stranger,
" is probably my own ; for there are some
things there is no grafting on a man'^s mind,
and I know not any thing it can be worth
while to affect ;"' and his lip curled, while he
spoke with an expression of such peculiar
haughtiness, that a young man near them, who
was upon the point of quizzing travels and ro-
mance in the same breath, involuntarily checked
himself, and turning to his next neighbour,
asked her, " if she could guess the reason of
the new comer''s appearing in so odd a dress ?"

" Is it odd ?'' said the lady ; " I did not
observe him, but my daughter says he bows
like a foreigner ; so it may be the dress of his
country."

" Oh indeed it is quite a mistake ; he is
a ward of Lord Amesforf s ; English born, has
been educated at Gottingen, and is just come
from abroad, somewhere. I heard the Earl
telling De Calmer to pay him attention, for
some very long reasons I could not listen to,
about his talents, &c. ; but he hates hangers-on,
and all things of that sort, so looked rather

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 15

sullen at his uncle, and scarce noticed the in-
troduction ; however, the flute seems to have
done wonders towards breaking the ice. See
what music will do in these days !'' and young
Arundel turned on his heel, in search of some
one who would join in his laugh against the
cut of Adolphus's coat, inwardly determining
the laugh should not be in his hearing.

The supper was long, and, to the new comer,
tedious. He was seated among strangers, and
so placed as not to see the lovely mistress of
the mansion, or even to catch the tones of her
voice. But Adolphus had been often in
crowds where he had no interest, so that the
situation w^as neither novel nor embarrassing,
though far from entertaining. There was ap-
parently little to be gained from listening to
the conversation of his neighbours, and he soon
Avithdrew his mind from the splendid board of
Lord Amesfort, to fix it on the small parlour
which contained his mother and sisters. He
longed to revisit it before their departure, but
dreaded renewing for her the misery of separa-
tion. " I will write to-night,'' thought he,

16 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

" and leave my letter early to-morrow at the
cottage she must pass ;" and this determination
he hastened to put in execution, as soon as he
could escape to his room. It was like all the
others in the castle, so large and gloomy that
the four lights that blazed on the old-fashioned
toilet did not throw their rays farther than the
centre of the apartment ; but Adolphus saw no-
thing in the room but a table on which he
could write to his mother, and establishing
himself directly, he began.

" Be under no uneasiness about me, dearest
mother. This is a fine place, full of fine people;
whether I shall like the one or the other is
more than 1 can tell just yet ; and, as to my
-noble guardian, I don't think I should know
him again, if I was to stumble on him in his
own house. However, I have one obligation to
him — ^he presented me to his wife, such a little,
lovely, sylph-like being, with such moveable
features ! I believe they express every thing at
the same time ; at least, I am sure each mean-
ing succeeds its predecessor so rapidly, that a
trace of the former one always remains, pro-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 17

ducing the sort of jumble I have sometimes
abused in Emily's drawings. I don t abuse it
here, though the beautiful little Countess is not
the ^vife I should have thought the proud, cold,
severe Earl of Amesfort would have chosen ;
but, to be sure, she was a girl when he married
her, and looks rather like a spoiled child now.
Not that I accuse her husband of spoiling her !
No — I have yet the tone ringing in my ears, in
which my name was pronounced to her, ad-
dressing her by her title. There are moments
when I hate titles, and this was one of them.^'

Adolphus had proceeded thus far, when a
gentle tap at the door produced the mecha-
nical " Come in !'' nor would he have raised
his head to observe the intruder, had he not
heard the person who entered immediately
draw the heavy bolt, which, by the resistance
it made, showed how completely its place had
hitherto been a sinecure. Montresor looked
up, and with wonder perceived the Earl.

" I disturb your writing, Adolphus,'' said he
mildly ; " but it will not be for long." Mon-
tresor had arisen, and presented a chair to his

IB LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

patron, who, drawing it out of the influence of
the light, made a motion to Adolphus to re-seat
himself.

There was a dead pause; by a violent, it
would have seemed a painful eiFort, the Earl
began, " Your mother goes to Wales: to-
morrow, does she not ?""

Adolphus bowed.

^' And your sisters also ? They are well, I
hope?"

'' Quite well, I thank you, my Lord ; at
their age they can have little cause to be
otherwise."

" Will not sorrow," said the Earl, in a tone
of deep feeling, " canker the youthful bud
as easily as it blasts the full-blown flower?
Adolphus, if you rely on youth, and health,
and spirits only, you will find the shield
softer than wax against the shafts of adversity.
Time was, when I rested on them — and they
have abandoned me."

" I thought of them," said Montresor, in
an accent of sympathy, " but as some of the
ingredients to happiness ; luckily there are
others."

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 19

** And those,"" said Lord Amesfort, with a
bitter smile, " you think are mine ? Well !
the outward show, I grant, is fair ; and who need
dive further? Are you a lover of state and
grandeur, Adolphus ? Would you choose to be
owner of all that confers dignity on me ?"

" I love state and grandeur as things to be
made use of, as enlarging our sphere of use-
fulness, and carrying more weight with our
counsel. As to your property, my liord — to
the acres you have purchased yesterday you
are welcome ; give me, the castle of my fathers,
the floors they have trod, the walls they have
bled to defend, the memory of heroes who sleep
in peace, but whose honoured names should,
untarnished by me, be handed down to pos-
terity !"

This burst of enthusiasm for imaginary an-
cestry, which Montresor had early imbibed in
Germany, was checked by a deep groan from the
Earl : one hand shaded his face, but with the
other he made a motion to cease, and Adol-
phus in wonder and alarm scarce dared to
breathe; at last, he ventured the enquiry, —
" was he iU r

20 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

" Ay, young man," said the Earl, as stern-
ly he uncovered his face, " of an illness time
cannot cure. But it is not of myself I meant
to speak. I am told you dislike the law, to
which you have been bred, and aver the pro-
pensity for a military life. I dislike it for you :
as the sole protector of your mother and sisters,
your life should not be cast on the turn of a
die ; but I have no right to oppose your wishes.
You have a commission in the Guards, and I
intend sending you to town in a day or two
with my nephew Henry de Calmer, a young
man you will find worth your knowledge ;" and
bowing stiffly. Lord Amesfort uttered a cold
" good night !" and left Adolphus to conclude
his letter.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 21

CHAPTER III.

Young Montresor had left his letter for his
mother, walked twenty times to the hill from
whence he hoped to see their carriage, resisted
the wish to fly after it when it did appear,
strolled over the extensive grounds, made se-
veral sketches of the most picturesque parts of
the old building, and was finally debating with-
in himself whether he should not go to bed
again and try to forget his hunger in sleep,
when the opening of shutters, and a certain de-
gree of bustle, announced that the servants of
the great house were risen. He followed the
noise, which conducted him to the breakfast-
room, where a drowsy maid was scouring the
bright bars, who no sooner perceived him than,
struck with horror at any person choosing to

22 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

be up at such an hour, she let something fall on
the coal-skuttle, which overturning, extinguished
her light, and this emitted, as in anger at the
attack, a smell rather less fragrant than Adol-
phus had been enjoying in the flower-garden.

The first impulse is always to fly from mis-
chief of which you have been involuntarily the
cause, and our youngster in his eagerness to
escape either the wrath of the damsel, or the
odour of the extinguished candle, forgot that
his object in seeking for some one had been to
learn the way to the library, and ashamed of
returning, was quietly turning back to his own
room, when he met the Earl. " Are you just
up .?" he asked, and Adolphus assured him with
rather comic solemnity, he had been up about
four hours.

" And starved, no doubt," said Lord Ames-
fort. " You may come and breakfast with me,
if you will : mine is not a luxurious meal, but
a hungry man will take it without requiring
apologies."

^^ At this moment," laughingly replied Adol-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 23

phus, " there are not many things in the shape
of food I should quarrel with ; and at any time
I should conceive what your lordship takes,
might be good enough for me."*^

They entered the Earl's dressing-room, where
his own servant brought him, on a small silver
salver, one dish of chocolate poured out, and
two slices of dry toast. It was set down on a
large table covered with maps, pamphlets,
tracts, newspapers, and letters, and Adolphus
could not help thinking it was a strange whim
to be so uncomfortable; however, he very
thankfully swallowed what was brought him,
and could have wished it to be more, but as
tills did not occur to the Earl, and the servant
made his appearance no more, he prudently
sought to persuade himself a moderate meal
was wholesome, if it was not pleasant. Lord
Amesfort had left his scarce-tasted breakfast,
and was busily employed in writing ; his visitor
took up a book; and their silence had been un-
broken, until a gong sounding near them called
forth an exclamation from Montresor.

24 LORD amesfort's family.

" Did you never hear a gong before ?'*'' said
the Earl, raising his head with the look of one
reproving childishness.

" It is because I have heard it before that it
made me start,"" replied Adolphus. " I was a
very little boy when my mother used one as a
dinner-bell, and it always gave me so much
pleasure when sounded in the open air, where
it could reverberate, that I believe it was
nearly the first thing I inquired after on my
Return from Germany. What had become of
it no one seemed to know ; but whoever has it
will at least know my name, for I scratched it
thereon in every form my infant erudition
allowed of." Montresor got to the end of his
speech, though often tempted to stop by the
frequent change of Lord Amesfort's counte-
nance. Soon, however, it was composed again,
and he said, with great serenity, " If you have
so great a regard for the gong, you shall have
it as soon as you get a house of your own, for
this is the identical one you remember. I know
it belonged to your father and mother, but how
I came by it I now forget."

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 25

'' Strange/' thought Montresor, " that everv
body who has any thing to do with this gong
should lose their memory ! I wonder whether,
if ever I get it, I shall forget who gave it me ?""

They again relapsed into silence, but Lord
Amesfort presently rose, and, as he threw up
the sash of liis gloomy apartment, the child
scampered past in full chase of some one, who
proved to be Lord De Calmer. The noise of
the window opening checked its speed ; but
though the boy saw, and by the faint exclama-
tion of " papa,'' recognised his father, he made
no motion to approach him ; nor did the Earl
bestow on him any notice on his part. Adol-
phus had no distempered sensibility, none of
that strained and usually acquired feeling which
turns every species of affection into misery, and
which rather " wakes the nerve where agony
is born,'' than rejoices in the mental sunshine
scattered over our path ; yet there were some
sorts of coldness he, found it difficult not
merely to understand, but to pardon. From
his cradle he had been his mother's idol, and
that there should be parents without natural

VOL. I. C

26 LORD amesfort's family.

affection for their offspring, above all, when
young, helpless, and therefore unoffending, he
scarcely suffered himself to believe.

" Is this a paltry affectation," thought he,
" or is it real hardness of heart ? He has feel-
ings— I have witnessed them — not quite callous;
but are they all exhausted in selfishness ?" The
Earl turned round with so sudden a motion
that he met the scrutinizing gaze of Montresor
riveted upon him. Whatever might be his
defects, keenness of perception no one ever had
accused him of wanting. He saw at one glance
all that was passing over the mind of his young
visitor. A faint tinge replaced for a moment
on his cheek the colour that youth and health
once had painted there : it was not merely the
blush of resentment ; something of anger was
visible, but more of mortification, of inward
pain, of regret at being misunderstood, and of
pride that allowed of no explanation.

" Adolphus,'' he sai(^ presently, " if you
are not very much interested in your book,
you had better adjourn to the breakfast-room.
You vvill find Lady Amesfort down by this

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 2T

time, and the society there will be rather gayer
for you than my room."

" As you choose, my Lord," answered Mon-
tresor, rising ; " but do I go alone ?'^

" Without doubt," said the Earl, impatient-
ly : " is it not enough to sacrifice my evenings
to people who forget my existence before I am
well out of the room .^"

" If they forget j/o?/, my Lord, my chance of
being remembered must be so great that I am
not in much dano^er of orro^nnc^ vain."

" You are in no danger of that any where,
Adolphus, for you are rather too proud to be
vain also. Yet beware, young man ; that qua-
lity is ?iot the safeguard you may take it for.
At your age, I felt much like you. I was an
only son, heir to my father's w^ealth and ho-
nours : he thought my pride becoming ; he
encouraged it, miscalled i: proper spirit, which
would make me shrink from doing aught un-
worthy myself, unworthy the race from which
I sprung. Vain boast ! It was not mighty
trials, severe temptations that betrayed me, it
was my idle confidence in myself. Providence
c 2

28 LORD amesfort's family.

has showered down blessings upon me, but they
bless not me. My own presumption threw me
into error : I might have repaired it, but I was
too proud; and do you know the consequences?
I have broken the heart that trusted me; I
have severed myself from every dear and sacred
tie ; I have torn myself from all that lent a
charm to life, and I drag on an abhorred ex-
istence, an alien in my own house, a stranger
in the bosom of my family. . . . On my greedy
ear no voice of sympathy falls ; to my aching
eye no glance of affection comes, and I have
deserved it !*"

The Earl bowed his head, overcome with
the effort of confessing his wretchedness, still
more than by the wretchedness itself. His
picture of solitary misery had struck on the
heart of his auditor ; and in his mother^s tone
of gentle pleading, he began, but was checked
by the Earl.

" There, again !" he cried ; " that voice ! oh,
is that the only voice whose plaintive harmony
yet deigns to soothe me ?''^

The passionate gesture that accompanied

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 2;)

these words, led Adolphus to fear that melan-
choly had preyed upon the mind of the speaker,
until it had materially injured it. He re-
mained silent, until he perceived Lord Amesfort
calmer, then gently pressing the hand which
hung over the arm of his chair, " Will you
suffer me,'' he said, " to speak to you, not as
the obscure individual who owes his future ad-
vancement in life to your Lordship's patronage,
but as man to man, as a human being deeply
feeling the humiliation of our common nature,
and keenly sympathising in the miseries it en-
tails upon us ?"

A smile of benevolence, almost of aifection,
was his permission to proceed, but it was mixed
too with an expression of sadness, which seemed
to say " The root of my malady lies too deep
for you/'

" I presume not," resumed Montresor, in a
tone of strong interest, " to mock the unhappy,
(from whatever cause,) by recommending them
to strive against the grief that has mastered
them ; I do not ask of time to perform miracles
in their behalf. When we create our own mi-

so LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

sery, when it is brought upon us by others, or
when no other agency is visible than the im-
mediate hand of Providence, it is still there for
every one of us. Our path in life may have
roses, but it must have thorns, do what we will
to avoid them. The suffering we do not bring
upon ourselves, is doubtless the easiest to bear,
as it is the rarest : for " the other sort, however,
there is usually relief. If the consciousness of
having wounded any one is dreadful, there is
atonement of some kind in general to be made ;
and for one person we may have injured, there
are thousands we may serve. Strong feelings
were given us as a means of more effectually
benefiting others : they were never intended to
be pent up within our own breasts, fixing our
thoughts on our own peculiar sorrows, and de-
taching us from all those who, perhaps, we
think, could not bless us, but whom we could
bless. If we cannot be happy ourselves, surely
it is soothing to make others so ; and who has
so wide a range of usefulness as the Earl of
Amesfort ? Your wife is young and lovely ;
if she loves you not, may it not be because you

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 31

do not allow her to do so ? Your boy may
become any thing you choose to make him, and
is not his heart worth gaining ? Suffer not the
spleen of heartless philosophy to sour you.
They are base calumniators of our nature, —
which, all fallen as it is, has some glimmering
of divinity yet, — who assert that it is difficult
to find the way to the hearts of our fellow-
creatures. Beings bound by the same ties, en-
dowed with the same perception on all great
points, passing onward to the same high des-
tination, have svmpathies, and points of union,
which there is no shaking off. Doubt it not,
my Lord, there are a thousand hearts ready to
leap forward and acknowledge you, if you will
deign to look for them."'

" I will not smile at your enthusiasm, my
dear Adolphus,"" replied the Earl mildly, " but
perhaps when vou are of my age, you will find
there are echoes in the open air, but few in the
hearts of our fellow-creatures. I am not a very
young man : ill health and broken spirits make
me feel older still, and where would be the re-
sponsive emotion to all this ? — not in the mind

52 LORD AMESFORT S FAMILY.

of a young woman full of life, and health, and
spirits, who would not understand me even
could I explain myself to her. No ; sympathy
between my wife and me is hopeless : perhaps,
though I feel it hard not to be beloved, I
should be more wretched still if Lady Ames-
fort had, twining like a fresh luxuriant flower
around a withered trunk, attached herself to
one, who would then feel answerable for her
happiness, though unable to confer it. I have
not blasted the morning of her life : she is
happy ; and that she is so, is my greatest com-
fort, since it spares me additional self-reproach.
For my boy, he wants not my love : there are
plenty to be found to caress him ; — poor child !
I am more solicitous for his welfare than those
whom he now prefers. If he is spared me, I
will do my duty to one human being at least.
That there should be circumstances connected
with him, that give me more pain than I can
well conceal, is at once my misfortune and my
fault. But enough of this. I have answered
you minutely, that you might not suppose I
was wilfully deaf to counsel, when given in

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 33

kindness and truth. It is not because you are
nineteen and I am forty that I scorn to follow
your advice, but merely because, like most ad-
vice, it is not applicable. Now we will separate
in friendliness, I hope,'' and he took the willing
hand of his ward, ''but not to revert again to
this interdicted subject;" and Adolphus, bowing
his respectful obedience to the command, quit-
ted the room immediately, divided between
wonder, compassion, and curiosity.

c 5

34 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER IV.

Two days more Montresor remained at
Amesfort Castle, scarcely catching a glimpse of
his patron, but noticed sufficiently by Lady
Amesfort and Lord De Calmer, to place him
upon a pleasant footing with the rest of the so-
ciety. The latter accompanied him to town ;
and as they did not sleep in the carriage, they
found themselves, on their arrival, much ad-
vanced in each other^s favour. Even at first
sight nothing could appear more different than
these two young men. The Peer had been
spoiled by every creature that approached him,
so that his only favilt, a hasty temper, had in
creased instead of diminishing, and took f
form of caprice, imperiousness, illiberality, or
unkindness. Early produced in the great world.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 35

it was impossible to have an air of more decided
fashion, mingling with a shade of arrogance,
and a large proportion of good-nature. His
information, which was extensive for his age,
led him not so much to pedantry, as to an eager
desire to throw ridicule upon those whose pre-
tensions to knowledge did not in his eyes keep
pace with their legitimate claim to it. A sort
of affected indifference and suavity veiled his
satirical qualities ; and as he never did an ill-
natured thing, or said one in an ill-bred manner,
people were content to laugh at his wit, and to
flatter themselves with escaping its lash.

Such was Henry De Calmer, as the pupil of
high Hfe ; but at bottom he was something bet-
ter, for Nature had been more than commonly
bountiful to him, so that his virtues were his
own, and his faults those of the school in which
he had been educated. Henry was within a
few months of being of age, and he looked
forward to the time with great impatience ; not
that the tutelage of his maternal uncle had sat
uneasy upon him, or that he expected to be
happier any where than he had been at Ames-

-S6 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

fort Castle ; but to be his own master, though
he never remembered the time when he had
been otherwise, was to be felicity unspeakable.
" I cannot conceive,'' he would say to his now
constant companion, "- that you should have no
wish to get out of your teens .?"

" I never thought about it," would Adol-
phus reply; and De Calmer generally concluded
all their contests with " You never think about
any thing as I do ; I can't conceive what can
tempt people to say we are alike .?"

" Nor I either," thought Montresor, but he
never said so, for he had found out it was easy
to discompose his new friend. They had not
been long in town, when Adolphus heard from
his mother : she wrote thus, —

" I thank you, my own Adolphus, for having
spared me another parting : your letter did me
good ; not unmixed good, for there is none
such for me ; but more than I had any right to
expects Your cheerfulness is my greatest bless-
ing, and I would hardly therefore seek to cast
a damp over it ; but your comments on your
guardian gave me pain. You yourself say he

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 37

is unhappy, and it is not like my son to speak
lightly of one who suffers. You call him
proud, cold, severe — is not this judging harshly
of a stranger ? When I knew him, he was
the most cheerful and indulgent of human
beings ; and should j/ow, Adolphus, condemn
pride ? You ask me, who is Lord De Calmer ?
When I saw him last, he was a lovely boy : his
mother was the companion of my childhood,
the friend of my youth. The father of the
present Earl of Amesfort died when quite a
young man, leaving two children, his heir
Adolphus, and Frances, who made an impru-
dent marriage with Baron De Calmer.

" The late Lord Amesfort was a domestic
man, who did not wish his children to go from
under his own eye. About a year or more
after his death, his widow married again.
She soon lost her husband, but continued to
reside at Amesfort Castle. The Dowaerer-
Lady Amesfort was nearly connected with
the iVIontresors : it is unnecessary to enter into
all the reasons that induced her to take charge
of me, when I was about nine or ten years

38 LORD amesfort's family.

old. I lived with her till her death, which
took place before I was seventeen. My dear
Lady Frances was some years older than I •'
we led a very retired, I thought then, as well
as she did, a very dull life ; yet those six years
have been by far the best of my existence, and
I fear, of Lady Frances's also. She married
above a year before her mother's death, and
went abroad with her husband ; by which means
I never saw her after. The little Henry was
sent over to England, when a child, partly for
education, and partly because the climate of
India did not agree with liim. Lord and Lady
De Calmer returned at last, but it was merely
for Frances to die in her native land.

*' The present Lord Amesfort took charge
of the only child of a sister he had dearly
loved : yet I should fear that the young noble-
man inherits his father's turn of mind, rather
than his mother's, and his uncle has of course
consigned him to other hands. So little are
people aware of the extent of their duty to-
wards beings, who, as they are well or ill edu-
cated, become useful or pernicious members of

LORD AMESFORTS FAMILY. 59

society I I speak feelingly on this subject, for
had I been educated with any reference to my
ultimate advantage, rather than to gratify the
whims of my noble protectress, I should per-
haps have danced with less grace, played with
less execution, sung with less science, and been
both a better and a happier woman.

" My letter is of so unconscionable a length,
I have hardly room to add, old General Mon-
tresor received us, not merely with urbanity,
but real kindness. I have not seen his daugh-
ter, the fair bride, yet ; but the General pre-
sented Emily to her, and I hear of nothing
from morning to night but ^Irs. Dessamere.
She is going to London soon, and, I foresee,
-will ask for Emily to accompany her. I am
not one of those parents who long to push
forward their girls, while they are young and
pretty, in the hope of their marrying well ; but
Mrs. Dessamere is nearly the only relation
Emily has ; and, as I cannot live for ever, I
would not displease her by a refusal, unless
my daughter herself is decidedly averse to the
scheme^ which, at her age, is what I do not ex-

40 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

pect. That God may bless you, my dear Adol-
phus, ever prays your affectionate mother,

E. MONTRESOR."

" How many times," asked De Calmer, in a
tone of impatience, " do you mean to read that
letter ?"

" Why," returned Adolphus, " if I go on
till I understand it, I may read on till
Doomsday."

"I will be bound to explain it," cried Lord
De Calmer, snatching it out of his hand, " were
it full of charades, in less time than you have
been twirling it round your fingers, and seeking
for the sense in the flowers of the carpet," — And
he ran his eye quickly over it, muttering to
himself " So, did not take to my uncle — very
good advice ; only the first time one sees a per-
son, is just the time one judges him, unfortu-
nately for accuracy — ■ Who is Lord De Calmer ?'
What the devil, am I coming to my own his-
tory ?"

" Listeners, you know," said Adolphus, smil-
ing, "hear no good of themselves; take care
that you are not in the same predicament."

LORD AMESF0RT"S FAMILY. 41

De Calmer's quick blood rose. " I defy her,""
he began ; but checked himself, and with dimi-
nished gaiety continued to read. " 'Faith, Mon-
tresor, you must be asleep not to see day-light
in that epistle — I never read any thing much
clearer, and I am heartily glad your sister is
not to be cooped up for life among \yelsh
mountains, with a melancholy mother, and a
gouty old man, like poor General ^lontresor,
the stiffest, most ceremonious, most intolerable
person, for all he is your cousin, and mine too
it would seem, I ever was in company with. —
"What on earth are you making so long a face
at, man .-*' the lively Henry continued, giving
his friend a shake that at least discomposed the
muscles of his shoulder, if they had no effect on
those of his face.

The parts of Mrs. ^lontresor's letter that
puzzled her son were not such as he felt any
disposition to canvass ; and he was heartily glad
that his gay companion should have passed
without comment the neglect he conceived his
mother to have met with from Mrs. Dessamere,
and the singularity of her omitting to say one

42 LORD amesfort's family.

word of Lord Amesfort, during the six years
she must have seen so much of him. " Does
she know any harm of him.?'' thought Adol-
phus. " I remember being told in Germany,
' Your guardian, Lord Amesfort, loved your fa-
ther more than he did your mother.' ""

LORD AMESFORTS FAMILY. 43

CHAPTER V.

In the paths of dissipation which Adolphus
trod with his new friend, he learned to study
mankind in a new Hght. He saw much to
wonder at, much for unbroken spirits to enjoy,
something to condemn, and more to laugh at.
Well satisfied M-ith his own situation, he still
looked forward with uneasiness to the idea of
his young sister being initiated into the frivolity
and idleness of a to^vn life.

" So you are afraid of the young rustic being
spoiled .^" said Lord De Calmer, penetrating his
unexpressed thoughts.

*' Just so,'' replied Montresor, in the quiet
tone of one proof against raillery.

44 LORD amesfort's family.

" And you really would rather not see Miss
Montresor acquire the polished courtesy of —
Lady Amesfort for example ?''"'

" Your example is not fairly taken. I see
nothing like Lady Amesfort here; besides,
though on no account would I alter her, per-
haps if she were my sister, I might not always
approve the very fascination which now capti-
vates me. Do not however imagine, that I sus-
pect Emily of deviating from her natural man-
ner, or lowering the tone of her character
wherever she may be placed. I only fear the
quiet life she must hereafter lead, will appear
duller by comparison ; and what is more mis-
chievous yet, that she may become fastidious in
manner ; and having learned the charm of po-
lished refinement, will never feel comfortable in
other society.*"

" Poor Montresor !'' said De Calmer, in a
tone of mock pathos, " thou hast no real sor-
row, and so must needs gallop after imaginary
ones ! Now, I who have no superabundant sen-
sibiHty, see no necessity for keeping it in play
by any such undue means, but slide quietly

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 45

through life, without feeling it incumbent upon
me to go in search of pain, that does not come
in search of me.''

" Quietly r repeated Montresor to himself;
" and tliis young man, whose impetuous temper
keeps himself and his friends in a never-ceas-
ing fever, talks of sliding through life qideth/ !
How little do we know ourselves !'"*

That evening, the two young men were to go
to the Opera : Henry had letters of business to
write, a task he was always ready to put off;
and he was particularly provoked with them on
that day, as he liked the party he was to join.
Adolphus enjoyed the harmony of sounds, but
the harmony of a satisfied countenance more
.still; and he readily offered to stay at home
and write the letters for his friend. De Cal-
mer's was a temper hostile to obligations in ge-
neral : to have received them from those he did
not both love and respect, would have galled him
too deeplv, however trifling they might be ; but
he was rather glad of an opportunity of being
obliged by Adolphus, for he was aware that his
uncle's ward, however independent in mind, was

46 LORD amesfort's family.

not so in fortune ; and he knew there was no
possible way of serving him in future, but on
the plea of mutual benefits.

The young men had taken lodgings together,
and Montresor having written and sent the let-
ters in question, was so deeply engrossed by a
mathematical calculation, that he was not aware
of the hour, when Henry returned from the
Opera, and an assembly to which he had gone
afterwards- He entered the room with his
usual gaiety, exclaiming :

" Now let us thank the gods, Adolphus !
who prevented our going out together to-night,
for there can be no doubt but we should have
been fighting at this moment."

" Indeed !" said Adolphus, looking up from
his tranquil occupation with an incredulous
smile.

*' Ay, you may look wise, and shake your
head ; but the fact is more certain, than that
those horrible lines you are poring over, will
ever be understood by mortal man, or by
ghosts, — any less a one than Euclid himself."
" I perceive, I must make them over to Eu-

LORD AMESFOET'S FAMILY. 4?

did for the present,"" said Adolphus, smiling,
as he closed his book, and gathered up his
papers : " and now, pray what were we to have
fought about, if our kind stars had not inter-
posed ?'"

" For one of the fairest daughters of Eve,
that ever tempted unhappy man with forbidden
fruit."

" Quarrel for a woman !" said Montresor,
lighting his candle ; " that ivould be worth
while ! Good night, my dear Henry : as you
are a modern lover, you will not think it an
insult to have the wish of repose bestowed upon
you!"

" At least, I swear 2/ou shall have no repose
until you hear my story out ; so don't be a
churl, blow out your candle, sit down and lis-
ten. I was earlier than I need have been, so
found my party were not arrived. The box to
my right was occupied ; but the curtain drawn
so close, there was no discovering by whom.
It was evident from their conversation that the
two ladies, at least, had never seen an Opera
before; so, out of idleness and curiosity, I lis-

48 LORD amesfort's famil\.

tened to their remarks, which were spirited and
amusing enough. I caught a ghmpse of the
lady who talked and laughed most : she was
young, and had the beauty I hate, of deep
vivid colour : she leant very much forward, and
was eager to make her companion do so too ;
but the constant reply of, ' I see perfectly," at
last disheartened her, and provoked me, for it
was of course just the person I could not see
that I was curious about. I crossed the house
to the other side, but gained only a fuller pro-
spect of the lady I had seen before, who con-
cealed the other effectually ; so finding I only
lost the sweet tones of my neighbour, with-
out gaining a view of her face, I returned to
my party.

" Lady Delavel took my arm as we were
coming out, so I could not watch the strangers
as I had intended ; but the crowd was so great,
that we were torn asunder. At this moment, I
saw the other party in rather a deplorable situ-
ation. Unaccustomed to the place, they had
neglected to keep to the wall, and were fairly
borne down the current in the centre. I made

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 49

my way to the door, just as the lady on whom
I had kept my eye was separated from her
companion, who was thrown with some force
against me. Such a creature you never saw
then, Montresor, nor shall I see such another
to my dying day ! She was pale with terror,
but perfectly silent : in the jostle, her hair had
fallen down, and hung in rich clusters over her
shoulders. I endeavoured to re-assure her, with
the promise of soon joining her friends. She
was so much overcome, I thought she would
have fainted, but, the fresh air restored her.
We had been bearing our fate, with great pa-
tience on her part, and great satisfaction on
mine, for nearly a quarter of an hour, when her
friend's husband joined us, and said he had
sent his wife home, so that my companion must
content herself with a hackney-coach.""

" Any thing to get away from hence," she
said ; then, blushing as if fearful of appearing
rude to me, she accompanied her farewell
with a look that would have redeemed any
thing. I offered my carriage, which the gen-
tleman seemed disposed to accept ; but the lady

VOL. I. D

50 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

was decidedly adverse, and gained the day. I
went to Mrs. Arundel's rout, and met my peo-
ple again, but their names I have not to this
moment made out, nor could I, without an in-
troduction, continue to converse with the fair
object of my admiration."

" So then," said Montresor, " you may ne-
ver chance to light again upon this beautiful
unknown."

" Not see her again, after meeting her twice
running! Nonsense, man! — if she is above
ground, I see her to-morrow."

" You will sleep o£F this fancy, De Calmer,
for you are not subject to them, I think."

" For that very reason, I shall not sleep it off.
I tell you, Adolphus, all your philosophy is
nothing to me. Since I must be in love, I will
be so in earnest, nor will I ever give you any
peace until you oblige me by being just as
absurd yourself."

" Well, do but let me go to bed now, and I
promise to dream of your incognita, and fall in
love from description."

LORD AMESFORTS FAMILY. 51

" Not with her ! you are the only man on
earth I could not bear for my rival."

" Bravo, De Calmer ! I am to pass over the
vanity of that speech, out of gratitude to the
compliment to me, am I ?" — and the young men
laughingly separated.

The next morning they were sitting over
their late breakfast, forming conjectures re-
specting the fair unknown, when the servant,
addressing Montresor, informed him, two ladies,
who would not give their names, begged to be
admitted.

" Two, you unconscionable dog !" exclaimed
the young Peer.

'' Be content, Henry; I make one over to
you."

" I take you at your word ;" — and the door
flung open ; two ladies entered ; the youngest
was quickly pressed to the heart of Adolphus.

" My dear Emily, this is sooner than I
thought to see you. You had a mind to
catch me at some mischief, it seems."

" Just as I thought," cried the other lady ;
D 2

uSlTVOFlLUNOlS

52 LORD amesfort's family.

" I am reduced to introducing myself. — Emily,
I desire you will suffer your brother to make
his bow to his cousin, when she does him the
honour of visiting him."'

" I am quite ashamed. — Adolphus, — Mrs.
Dessamere. We could not well see you before,
for it was late yesterday when we arrived, and
I was taken to sights immediately.^'

" Now, you shall not tell that story," cried
Mrs. Dessamere. — " You must know, Mr.
Montresor, your sister is a prude, and has less
faith in her looking-glass than is proper. She
made a conquest in the crowd at the opera last
night; — not a favourable place, I acknowledge ;
but still I maintain the fact, let her say what
she will."

" And I," cried Emily playfully, " deny it,
were it only for the credit of humanity. It is
too hard upon a man to suppose he cannot be
civil v/ithout being in love."

" But," said Adolphus, smiling archly, " it
is pleasant to know civil people ; so, permit me
to introduce Lord De Calmer to you," and he
drew forward the young Peer, who had not

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 53

stirred from the moment of ^liss Montresor's
entrance, and who now bowed with more em-
barrassment, if possible, than she felt. Adol-
phus could not help enjoying their confusion ;
but, appearing not to notice it, he devoted his
attention to ]Mrs. Dessamere. Neither Emily
nor Lord De Calmer took any advantage of
this wilful blindness. She sat trying to think
of something that would be proper to say, until
the silence had lasted so long she was ashamed
of breaking it ; and he stood near her, thinking
of nothing, and affecting to look at Mrs. Des-
samere, while, in fact, he watched every ner-
vous motion of Emily's long eyelashes. Mi^s
Montresor was not, on most occasions, destitute
of that presence of mind which formed so strik-
ing a feature in her brother''s character. In a
few minutes she recovered her accustomed com-
posure, and, determining to shorten this unplea-
sant visit, she reminded her cousin of their
promise to meet Colonel Dessamere.

" What a fidget you are, child ! You were
dying to see your brother, and now you are
dying to leave him.'"*

54 LORD amesfort's family.

" And you will not suffer me to die, I am
sure," replied Emily, rising.

" Well, take your own way, and make Mr.
Montresor dine with us to-day or to-morrow ;"
and, looking towards Lord De Calmer, she was
going to include him, but was stopped by an
imploring look from Emily. The young Peer
understood it all at one glance : he was near
the door, and offered his arm to Mrs. Dessa-
mere. Miss Montresor stopped for a moment,
to know when she should see her brother again ;
then, flying down-stairs, sprung into the car-
riage, without appearing to notice the prof-
fered hand of De Calmer.

'^ What an admirable game of cross purposes
you and your fair unknown have been playing
just now," said Adolphus, as Henry rather
sulkily returned to the room. " Why you
chose to torment each other in that way, I, who
am ignorant in Cupid"'s concerns, was not very
well able to make out."

" Torment one another ! What nonsense,
Montresor ! She may find it no easy matter to

LORD AMESFORT'S FAxMILY. 55

torment me ; and, it is pretty clear, I cannot
torment her."

" So, then, you tried : well, there's an honest
confession at least," seriously continued Adol-
phus, changing the tone of his voice. "I re-
joice, for your sake, that the unknown, who was
so near turning your head, proves to be my
sister, as the discovery will restore you to the
senses you were on the verge of abandoning last
night. You will find many women fit to be
the object of a violent and transient fancy, and
who may even be flattered by it ; but Emily
Montresor is not the person you are seeking."

" \VTiat the devil is the matter with the
fellow !" thought De Calmer, as his eye fol-
lowed the commanding figure of Adolphus
moving across the room with increased state-
liness.

" Come," he cried aloud, " don't be muster-
ing up all your pride when there is no enemy
to meet ; it's a waste of ammunition, you
know. I have not parted so entirely with my
senses, as not to know one friend is worth two

56 LORD amesfort's family.

mistresses; so, here's my hand, Adolphus, and
I will swear, if you like it, that the radiant
Emily is not fair, only I should be afraid of
some evil genii popping upon me, if I ventured
to tell such a barefaced lie."

" I ask no oaths or vows," said Adolphus,
affectingly pressing his hand ; and De Calmer
felt more bound by his friend's look of gene-
rous confidence, than if he had made protesta-
tions innumerable.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 57

CHAPTER VI.

Mrs. Dessamere was a young and lively
woman, too well pleased with herself not to be
generally pleased with others. The only sur-
viving child of General Montresor, she was
thought to be a good match, and was recom-
mended as such to the Honourable Colonel Des-
samere by his particular friend. Dessamere
certainly did not want a wife, but then he did
want money, and reluctantly he accompanied
his friend to visit the old General. The stiff
poHteness and formal attention with which he
was received, almost put to flight any idea of
entering such a family ; but Augusta Montre-
sor appeared, and his ideas took another turn.
A romantic person would not perhaps have
called a man in love, from whose mind pounds,
D -5

5B LORD amesfort's family.

shillings, and pence were never one instant
absent ; but Dessamere, it is presumed, was not
romantic, for he did think himself in love ; and
as he found Augusta very ready to think so
too, they were not long in consulting General
Montresor on the subject. The old officer had
a prejudice in favour of his profession, and
another in favour of family — both were gra-
tified by his daughter's choice : and though he
had seen many men he preferred to Dessamere,
and thought him too old for Augusta, and too
gay for any sober woman, he wisely considered
that was her affair, and gave his consent ; and,
what his son-in-law thought more to the purpose,
a very handsome fortune ; expressly stating,
they were not to rely upon any thing more after
his death. But wills are things nobody can be
reasonable about : few people know how to
make them, and fewer learn to expect nothing
from them.

Dessamere threw his money to the right and
the left, nor could he reasonably check his
wife's extravagance, since it was to her father
he looked ultimately in case of embarrassments.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 59

The bride was eager to come to town ; but, as
she knew hardly any one there, she did not
vdsh to come alone. Her cousin Emily fell in
her way, at the very moment she was consider-
ing to which of her acquaintance she should
propose accompanying her. Some had ill health,
and could not bear raking; some had precise
mothers, who would not suffer their girls to
move -svithout them ; some were vulgar, and
some were ill-tempered ; — finally, some were too
handsome ; and jNlrs. Dessamere, though a good-
natured person, and very ready to admire her
friends, naturally enough stipidated to be the
most admired herself. Now, Emily's beauty
was so unlike her cousin's, that Mrs. Dessamere,
in the simplicity of her heart, could not dis-
cover that she was pretty at all, and would have
described her as a nice pleasant creature, fair
and elegant, without any effect ; and as effect
was just what Augusta had been most admired
for, she of course thought it an indispensable
part of beauty. Dessamere, who had been
living in dread of his wife domesticating and
carrying about some good sort of country neigh-

60 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

bour, was not a little relieved at her haA'ing
fixed upon Emily, and was well content to
reply to the numerous enquiries of " Who is
that lovely creature?'' "A relation of my wife's
— the same name."

" The Montresor family," said a gentleman
one night to Lord De Calmer, *' unite every
style of beauty. How came they to be hid so
long ? For Mrs. Dessamere and her cousin have
come upon us like a sudden burst of Hght, nor
can any one divine from whence."

" Mr. Montresor can explain that better than
I," said Lord De Calmer, presenting his friend.

" My sister," said Adolphus, smiling, " is
only on a visit to Mr. Dessamere, and will pro-
bably see London no more. I can no otherwise
account for General Montresor's daughter being
unknown, than from her having been abroad,
where her mother went for the recovery of her
health. She died in Italy, and General Mon-
tresor has not returned to England much above
a twelvemonth."

Some one addressing Adolphus, he moved
away to join him ; and the gentleman to whom

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 61

he had been speaking, turned again to Lord
De Calmer : " And so that's a Montresor too !
what a noble-looking creature ! Who is he ?
for there must be good blood in that fellow's
veins/'

" I know nothing of his family : his father,
I understand, is dead, and was related, or con-
nected, or both, with my uncle Amesfort, who
is guardian to this young man.""

'' So ! a soldier of fortune quite.''

" Very possibly. I know nothing for cer-
tain, but that the good fortune of knowing him
is undeniable."

" Would you believe it," said the gentleman
to Mr. Arundel, " De Calmer is grown un
heros d'amitie ? He almost resented my asking
a few idle questions about his uncle's ward."

" What, ^Montresor !" cried Arundel ; " I
was at Amesfort Castle the other day, when he
made his debut. He turned all their heads, I
think ; but, as to getting a plain answer to the
simple question. Who is he ? take my word for
it, you will lose your labour, as I did mine. De
Calmer was determined not to like the inter-

62 LORD amesfort's family.

loper at first, just because his uncle desired
him to like him, I suppose ; but Montresor had
Harlequin's wand, with which he could change
every thing at will, for they were fast friends
directly ; and I should not wonder if he got
him to marry his sister, though De Calmer is
not easily taken in."

" Taken in ?" retorted the other ; " it would
be no great misfortune to have such a lovely
wife, either. She would grace a higher title
and an older one than that paltry new-made
thing."

Miss Montresor, who had with great patience
endured this conversation passing at her ear,
began to think she had heard enough, and
begged Mrs. Dessamere to move a little.
Though she spoke in a low tone, she was heard
by those who had unwittingly been tormenting
her ; and, turning round, they added to her dis-
comfort by a stare, which was habitual to them ;
but being new to Emily, she coloured beneath
the imaginary insult, and more earnestly begged
her cousin to move. But she was deep in an

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 63

interesting flirtation, and contented herself with
replying " Presently, my dear."

Miss Montresor had nothing for it but re-
signation ; but as her countenance was not a
very happy one at that moment, it struck Lord
De Calmer, who immediately forgot he had
determined not to speak to her that evening,
and coming up, he asked her if she felt ill ?
Emily, whose ears were now on the qui vive,
heard the smothered laugh of Arundel and his
companion, and wished Lord De Calmer in
India, or herself in Wales.

" Quite well in health," she replied thought-
lessly, so much was she in the habit of telling
the exact truth.

" Not ill otherwise, I trust," said Lord De
Calmer Anxiously ; " you have had no bad
accounts of ^Irs. Montresor .^"

" Excellent young man !" thought Emily,
forgetting, in his affecting tone of interest, the
frivolous beings whose discourse had annoyed
her ; "he thinks nothing but my mother's ill-
ness ought to give me pain."

64 LORD amesfort's family.

" No, thank God I" she added aloud, " I
have no real cause of uneasiness whatever. I
was merely out of temper."

" And do you recover best alone, or in com-
pany ?'"

" Best alone, I think ; for it would be bad
policy to be out of temper with oneself, and
there is no being angry with others when you
don"'t see them."

" Then, you always forget others, when you
don't see them .P"

" That depends," said Emily, laughing, " on
whether they are worth remembering or not."

" Do you find many people worth remem-
bering ?"

" Do i/ou, my Lord ?""

" Oh no, indeed !"

" Then, how should I, who have lived only
with my mother, Adolphus, and little Fanny,
except ten days spent in a crowd, where I have
not met a soul who will remember my existence
next season."

" You pour out the waters of Lethe with
an unsparing hand," said De Calmer in a tone

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 65

of reproach ; and fearing to say too much, he
addressed ]\Irs. Dessamere. That lady, in com-
pHance with her cousin's wishes, had forborne
to show any particular encouragement to the
young Peer ; but, at this moment, Emily and
her feelings were put out of her head by a more
important subject, — a waltzing ball. How to
get to this ball was the object ; and Lord De
Calmer, she thought, could assist her. She be-
gan by asking. Was he to be there ? talked of
the superior style of waltzing abroad, where she
had often seen it ; and regretted her being un-
acquainted viiih the person who was to give
this ball.

" If you wish to go," said De Calmer, " you
shall have an invitation to-morrow ;""* and he
retreated immediately from the dehghted thanks
of the lady. The invitation came while they
were at breakfast the next day ; and Mrs. Des-
samere poured forth as warm eulogiums on De
Calmer, as if he had conferred an everlasting
benefit on his country in general. Dessamere
caught the smile wandering over Emily's fea-
tures at the manner in which his wife worded

66 LORD amesfort's family.

her praise, and could not help remarking that
it was very appropriate. It is never very plea-
sant to be laughed at, least of all by one's hus-
band; and Mrs. Dessamere, not venturing to
resent it in the right place, vented her discon-
tent on poor Emily.

Miss Montresor was of a more than com-
monly grateful temper. She had been gratified
by her cousin's kindness, and enchanted with
her lively disposition ; she was proportionably
hurt at the change in her manner, and was,
above all, in continual dread of Dessamere
making some comment upon it, that would of
course make matters worse. A little prudence,
and a great deal of good temper, smooths many
a rugged path ; and as Emily was superemi-
nently endowed with both these rare qualities,
the cloud soon passed over, though not without
damping considerably the spirits with which
the young rustic had entered her new career of
gaiety. She had indeed soon discovered, how
little unmixed good is to be found any where.
The life she led had the charm of novelty to
recommend it, and there was an excitement to

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 67

one so long used to retirement, even in the
country dance played on the organ in the street.
As to Punch, she was ashamed to confess how
much it diverted her ; and though she had not
Mrs. Dessamere''s pleasure in shopping, or any
notion of the temptation to purchase what she
did not want — even there, her ignorance was
a source of amusement. The indecision of the
ladies, the airs of the gentlemen, the obsequious
civiHty of the shopkeepers, their routine of
phrases, and their particular wish to oblige the
identical person who was speaking to them, in
preference to all others whomsoever, had more
than once excited her laughter.

At the miUiner^s she grew most tired ; for,
though she had no objection to Mrs. Dessamere
trying on every cap in the shop, and receiving
a fresh compliment at each, she was a little
impatient at her cousin putting them on her,
to judge of their effect, as she said. Not that
she would not have made a very passive block
at her own house, safe from the conmients of
the milliner's apprentices ; but she had some-
thing of her brother's pride, which, teaching her

6^ LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

to shrink from gross flattery as an impertinence
almost amounting to insult, rendered her more
than commonly susceptible of its influence, when
veiled by delicacy and taste. Emily often won-
dered at the good temper with which her cousin
received a general compliment ; and tried to be
equally courteous ; but it was forcing her na-
ture, which rebelled against it : no wonder, then,
that she could not, or would not see that Mrs.
Dessamere was really gratified and flattered by
the very speeches from which she recoiled.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 69

CHAPTER VII.

The waltzing ball at last took place, not
without producing cabals, disappointments, and
sarcasms innumerable. It was not easy to get
to it, for the noble giver had determined that
none but waltzing ladies should be there.
Every one wanted to be invited, but every
one did not venture to say so. So much non-
sense had been talked on both sides, respecting
this foreign dance, that no one found the path
back to common sense easy to discover. The
body of oppositionists, in this important matter,
was not so formidable as might have been sup-
posed bv the first view of their numbers. Some
were deserters from the other party, having
been seized with a panic, that their daughters,
failing to secure as a partner for life any of the

70 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

advocates for waltzing, would have no chance
with quieter people, who stuck to old customs
with as much pertinacity as they would have
done to old virtues. Others objected to it,
because people they disliked patronised it ; — and
finally, under the banners of the more deter-
mined and staunch supporters of the decorum
of our ancestors, were enlisted many who only
sought for a fair opportunity of seceding with
a show of propriety, and languished to exhibit
either their own graceful forms, or those of
their girls, in the only chance in which grace is
at once indispensable and fascinating.

From the mere rumour of such divisions in
the land of fashion. Miss Montresor had been
far removed. She saw, indeed, much anxiety
prevail upon the subject; but, since her visit
to town, she had so invariably thought both
the pain and the pleasure expressed so utterly
disproportionate to the causes which gave them
birth, that there was nothing now to wonder at ;
and she therefore simply took it for granted,
that a waltzing ball must be pleasanter than any
other, since it produced so much more sensation.

LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY. 71

She went, and found the apartments more than
usually handsome, the music excellent; — and,
whether from the size of the rooms, or the
comparatively small number of dancers, neither
heat, nor bustle, nor crowd, which Emily, like
a true lover of dancing, was rejoiced to see.
Mr. Dessamere lost no time in joining those
who were actively employed; whilst her cousin,
either less kno^n, or less observed, took her
brother's arm, and her station near a large
window in a recess which was filled with the
most beautiful flowers. She was in a few
minutes joined by Mr. Arundel, who begged
she would decide whether he had won or lost
his wager.

" What,'' asked the surprised Emily, " can
I know about your wagers .^"

" No one can know so well as yourself; it is
whether you are a waltzer ? Now, I betted con-
fidently you were not; for, I know, De Calmer
abhors it ; and, as he is so great a friend of your
brother's, I took it for granted, Mr. Montresor
would be of the same opinion.''

Emily, from whose mind the observations

72 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

made by this gentleman some time before were
by no means obliterated, coloured with indig-
nation, and her first impulse was to show her
indifference to Lord De Calmer^s opinion, and
avow her predilection for the dance ; but the
next feeling was more like herself. " Shall such
an animal as that move me ?''"' thought she ; and
quietly she replied, " I am very ready to bow
to Lord De Calmer in matters of taste ; and, if
he objects to it, I have no doubt it is objec-
tionable."

^' Then,"*^ said Arundel, in a tone of spiteful
triumph, " you will not waltz to-night ?"'

^' You think, then,'' said Emily slily, " it
would be impossible to get leave from Lord De
Calmer."

" I will ask him, if you like," quickly re-
torted her tormentor; who, aware she was
quizzing him, determined to be revenged.

" That," said she calmly, " is giving you a
great deal of trouble ;" but Arundel, fearful of
a prohibition, had flown in search of the young
Peer.

" Why, my dear Emily," said Montresor

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 73

rather impatiently, " why would you let that
idle fellow run away with the idea that you
regulated your opinions and actions on Lord
De Calmer's or Lord Anybody's ?'"

" Because, Adolphus, the idea is already
fixed in his capacious intellect : denying it,
would not only have done me no good, but
would have left the field open to as many more
attacks of the same nature as could have been
veiled in the semblance of good-breeding ; the
reality, wliich we have been taught to tliink
consists in the fear of wounding the feelings of
another, is many tones higher than characters
of Mr. Arundel's cast. Now, as I don't exactly
know how I should get out of the scrape in
case he does send Lord De Calmer, I wish
very much you would waltz with me, if it
was ever so short a time."

" That would do you no good, my dear ; for
waltzing \nth a brother has always been allow-
able."

" I will look for Colonel Dessamere, then."

" Nay," said a voice behind them, " beware
of a second refusal !" — It was Lord De Calmer :

VOL. I. E

74 LORD amesfort's family.

and Emily felt quite as uncomfortable as Mr.
Arundel could have wished.

" Pray," said he, quietly drawing her hand
through his arm, " set poor ArundeFs mind at
ease by convincing him you have my permission
to waltz. — Here, Adolphus," he added, twirl-
ing Emily's scarf round him, " don't lose the
shawl, if you don't mean to be well-scolded to-
morrow:" and before Emily could reply, or
scarcely know where she was, she found herself
engaged in the never-ending maze, and, between
the music and her partner, performing her part
as well as if she was thinking of nothing else.
This, however, was far from being the case :
she was confounded, nor did she venture to
look up, dreading every where to meet the
malignant laugh of Arundel. She had not
waltzed for so long, that a slight sensation of
giddiness added to her confused ideas. She
did not like to stop, for then she must speak,
which she felt would be difficult : she dreaded go-
ing on, lest, being still more uncomfortable, she
should lose the power of moving ; and the nerv-
ous terror of a fainting, or any sort of scene

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 75

with Lord De Calmer, made her tremble uni-
versally. Luckily for her, she found her partner
stop. It was very near a couch, and, having
seated her, he said quietly, " Don t speak yet,
for I see you are giddy/''

Emilv hardly felt less grateful to him, than
she had done the first night of her seeing him
in the crowd at the Opera. Adolphus joined
them immediately ; "I release you from all
duty,'" said he, trying to smile, as he seated
himself beside his sister.

" I thank you," said De Calmer drily, " but
I have not released myself yet. Do you mean
to dance any more, ^liss ^lontresor."

'• Yes,"" she answered hastily, " when my
head has got into its right place again."

" What, without my leave .^"

'• I imagine, even if I took the trouble to ask
it, you would hardly take the trouble of answer-
ing so very uninteresting a question."

" Certainly, I can claim no right to advise

you upon any subject, whether interesting or

otherwise ; but you are so very young, and so

new to this sort of life, that I thought the opi-

E 2

76 LORD amesfort's family.

nion of your brother's friend might not be
without some weight. If I was wrong, I can
but regret it ; I have neither the right nor the
wish to complain."

" Emily's heart smote her for having seem-
ed to repulse such disinterested kindness, and
her eloquent eyes explained her feelings better
than her disjointed phrase.

" Are you aware," he began, " that many
people condemn this practice .?""

" No, indeed ! — upon what possible plea.^*"

" I shall make you stare, I perceive :^-on the
plea of its impropriety."'

'' Is it possible .^" cried Emily, colouring ;
'' and why," she added, casting a half-re-
proachful look at her brother, " not have
informed me of this.'^"

" Because," quietly replied Montresor, " I
have read the fable of ' The Old Man, his Son,
and the Ass.' In other words, there is no
pleasing every body ; so, why not please one's
self on matters too of so little consequence .^"

" Things are of consequence according as
they are considered," interrupted De Calmer.
" A dance is of no consequence to us, no doubt.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY, 77

any more than a dress is to Miss Montresor ;
yet we know there are people who think seri-
ously about both, and to whom they are im-
portant matters."

" And so we are to have our judgments con-
stantly biassed by people we ourselves feel to
be our inferiors ?"

" Not ours, Adolphus ! We are called upon
to be consistent, and can be so only by acting
up to our own sentiments, unwarped by the com-
ments of others. But is a woman — a young
and lovely woman, like your sister — in the same
predicament ? If I know any thing of Miss
Montresor, she is the last person who would
willingly make herself conspicuous, or risk
censure, however undeserved ; least of aU, that
sort of censure," and his keen eye scanned the
troubled features of Emily, anxious to gather
from them her determination.

" I wish," she said at last, *' you had told
me all this before we danced."

" Why so ?"

" Because now I must dance this night with
any body that will ask me ; and with the calum-
nies against this innocent dance you have put

78 LORD amesfort's family.

into my head, I shall feel very awkward and
uncomfortable."

" And why must you dance ? Can you not
be tired, or dance with Adolphus .?"

" And let my amiable friend Mr. Arundel
say, with some reason. Miss Montresor thinks
it incorrect to waltz with any one but Lord
De Calmer ! No, no, my Lord, it would be
better to spend my life in waltzing;" and
proudly she curved her beautiful throat with
one of her brother^s well-known looks. — Lord
De Calmer remained silent, but a half-stifled
sigh reached the ear of his companion, and
made her repent the pointed manner in which
she had shown her determination to grant him
no sort of preference. Montresor, who dreaded
this conversation taking a more tender turn,
arose, and asked his sister if she had not better
see whether Mrs. Dessamere had left the dance.

De Calmer had hoped that remaining in the
anteroom she would be unobserved, and escape
dancing ; but he had temper enough to do his
friend justice, and could see that no waltzing
could do Emily so much harm as talking all
night to him.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. T9

Miss Montresor danced both before supper
and after, but the pleasure of her evening was
destroyed. In vain she met every where the
friendly eye of De Calmer, and saw his encou-
raging smile; she was doing what he condemned,
and her spirit and elasticity were gone.

" What a delicate creature your sister is !"
said Mrs. Dessamere to Adolphus, who was at
that moment her partner.

'' She was quite weary after the first dance,
in which she certainly acquitted herself better
than any one in the room ; but now, do but
see how languidly she moves !"

" There is a great deal in having a good
partner," said the persevering Arundel.

" Sir Master Percy dances very well," an-
swered Mrs. Dessamere, who had the very use-
ful quality of seeing, in words, only their most
obvious and good-natured meaning. Montresor
grew impatient ; and when he had seated Mrs.
Dessamere, he went in search of his sister.

" Emily, you are asleep. Come, child, do
forget De Calmer for a moment and dance like
yourself."

This time Miss Montresor did not merely

80 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

blush ; the tears also started into her eyes.
" Adolphus, is this kind .?^' she replied in an
under-tone. " What your friend told me
would have occupied me as much, had it been
mentioned by any other person."'

" Of course," said Montresor hastily, vexed
at her uneasiness ; " I meant his comments, not
himself. You must dance with me now, and
pray exert yourself." It was a waltz Emily
and her brother had often danced while their
mother played to them ; and transported by the
air to other times, and a beloved home. Miss
Montresor's manner and countenance changed
with the altered feelings. Murmurs of applause
ran round the room, and De Calmer too was
ready to admire.

" You are quite rallied, my love," said her
cousin, " it is almost a pity to leave off."

" There," said Colonel Dessamere, " I differ
from you ; for the moment to leave off any
thing is in the height of success."

••' Which means," said Emily, laughing,
" that you are sleepy. Though I am not, I
am quite ready to go home ;" and she took his

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 81

proffered arm, almost wondering that De Cal-
mer should not have offered his. They passed
very near him, but he only bowed, and that
rather stiffly.

" How strange !'' thought Emily : " and yet
I am sure I don't know why he should be think-
ing of me : he must have many other things
and people to occupy him,"' and unconsciously
she closed her reflections with a sigh. She for-
got, however, both them, and the seeming neg-
lect which gave birth to them, the next time
she met Lord De Calmer.

E 5

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER VIII.

The two young men were to dine next day
with Colonel Dessamere. Emily appeared but for
a moment, not willing to leave her cousin, who
had fatigued herself too much the night before,
and being in a situation that called for quiet,
was now suffering for her imprudence. She
bore her retreat so impatiently, that it was of
course obliged to be prolonged, and she became
seriously ill. Col. Dessamere was much alarm-
ed at first, and never quitted her; but when
she was out of danger, his attention relaxed
with his anxiety, and Emily became the sole
companion of a languid and restless invalid.
The confinement was tedious ; and Miss Mon-
tresor rejoiced nearly as much for her own

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 83

sake as for her cousin's, when Mrs. Dessamere
was wheeled into the drawing-room, and suf-
fered to see a few particular friends. Adol-
phus was, of course, of the favoured num-
ber, and somehow or other Lord De Calmer
contrived also to make one. His sprightly
sallies, his happy manner of describing, and
his numerous acquaintance, from whom there
was always news of some sort or other to be
gleaned, contributed considerably more to the
amusement of the invalid, than the sober con-
verse of Adolphus. " Your brother,'' she
would sometimes say to Emily, " is like some
beautiful rock proudly displaying its pictu-
resque outline to the ceaseless waves of the
ocean, and veiling its awful summit in the grey
mists of Heaven, for ever wearing the same in-
definite colour of repose and immutabihty. But
De Calmer is like an Italian sky, rich in glow-
ing colours and exhilarating beauty. There is
more magnificence and lonely grandeur in my
cousin; but more excitement, more conscious-
ness of existence about his friend; and while

84) LORD amesfort's family.

the eye of one speaks of the majesty of Heaven,
that of the other is bent on the happiness of
man/'

Adolphus was probably less amusing to Mrs.
Dessamere than he would have been to any one
more inclined to sympathise with his peculiar
feelings. Aware of the difference of their dis-
positions, Miss Montresor only wondered that
Mrs. Dessamere should have the good taste to
admire what she had not the power to sympa-
thise with, and was quite ready to do full jus-
tice to Lord T>e Calmer, not only as an agree-
able companion, but as an excellent man. The
kindness with which he gave so much of his
time to a sick room was over-rated by her,
who saw in it no other attraction than the
exercise of kindly and benevolent feelings —
feelings which, she saw with regret and won-
der, were so little apt to sway the husband of
Augusta.

There were moments when Emily dreaded
for her cousin the kindness of strangers as too
painful a contrast to the inattention of Dessa-
mere ; but with more humanity and judgment

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 85

than is usually exercised on such occasions,
she carefully concealed such sentiments, and
strove to exaggerate any ordinary act of good
nature on Dessamere's part, and lend to his
careless enquiry after his Avife, as he quitted
the house, the tone of interest and kindness.
Montresor marked and severely censured the
conduct which Emily was so often called upon
to palliate, but his remarks were confined to
the ear of his friend or his sister. De Calmer
laughed. " Why, Adolphus, you are rather
hard on a poor husband ; while his wife is
amused, it is fair enough he should amuse him-
self too. Augusta Montresor chose a man of
fashion, not a domestic country gentleman ; and
she did not, I suppose, mean to unite all ad-
vantages. How grave you look, ^liss ]Mon-
tresor !"

" Have I not cause ?"' said Emily, reproach-
fall v. " When I hear attachment made only
o)ie of the advantages of marriage, I confess I
look round in vain for what the others may be."

" But who,'' impatiently retorted De Cal-
mer, " was placing you in such a situation.^

86 LORD amesfort's family.

other motives will determine your choice, and
other results will of course ensue. It would be
utterly impossible for you to be a neglected
wife.'-

" And what is my security, my Lord?
What advantages have I that my cousin does
not possess to perfection .?"

" Shall I tell you ?" said De Calmer affec-
tionately. " You have a heart which calls im-
periously for another heart ; which deserves
another. He would, indeed, be less than man,
who, rich in such a treasure, could neglect it ;"
and the sigh which closed his remark, added to
the confusion with which Emily'^s eye had sunk
beneath the expression of his. Eager to with-
draw herself and her own feelings from the
conversation, she quickly replied, " You do my
cousin injustice, if you imagine she married
Colonel Dessamere without a decided preference.
Young, handsome, admired, of a good family,
and heir to her father's large property, she
could have no object in marrying but regard
for him, particularly as he was known to have
slender means, and nothing brilliant in the way

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 87

of prospects, to say nothing of his being more
than ten years older than Augusta."

'' Which," said Adolphus, smiling, " you
think a great objection ?'^

" Don't laugh at me, brother ! I do not
mean to call Colonel Dessamere an old man,
(though even you must allow he does not look
young,) but surely it is natural to expect more
congeniality of temper, pursuits, and sentiments,
in people of our own age, than in those who are
weary of what we are eager to enjoy, and have
learned to doubt every thing it can give one
pleasure to believe. I do not think," she added
fervently, " it is possible to love any human
being more than I love our dear mother ; yet
I cannot express how my spirits sink before
one of her mild mournful speeches, beginning,
' \^^hen you have lived as long as I have, Emily,
you will cease to attach consequence to these
things,' or, ' At your age, my child, I too
could dream.' I declare I feel now the mortal
chill she has so often given me ; and yet she is
quite young."

" In years she is young," said Montresor

88 LORD amesfort's family.

sadly ; " but she has found time to shed more
tears than are sometimes wasted in a long life.
Even in our infancy, her smiles were more like
a winter's sun, cheering without warming ; and
since my return home this last time they are
less and less frequent."

Miss Montresor, who had so seldom left
her mother, was not quite so much in the dark
respecting the possible causes of her mother's
dejection as Adolphus, but it was a subject
which she always most carefully avoided, and
vexed at having fallen upon it unconsciously,
she remained silent and uncomfortable, until
Mrs. Dessamere's bell ringing announced her
being dressed, and ready to admit company.

The season was now far advanced, and the
heat of the town being unfavourable to Mrs.
Dessamere's weak state, who had lost all hope
of partaking in any farther gaieties this year,
she consented to be removed a few miles into
the country. Lady Georgiana Fairfax, a sister
of Colonel Dessamere's, a most pleasing and
courteous person, offered to take charge of
Emily, and Augusta was generous enough to

LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY. 89

recommend her cousin to accept the invitation.
Emily liked Lady Georgiana, -would have been
glad of a little more amusement, and could not
think of quitting her brother and his friend
without a sigh ; but she had been brought up
to consider the shadow of a duty as outweighing
every personal gratification, and without he-
sitation she declined the tempting offer.

" I see,"' said Lady Georgiana, " what your
motive is, though you are too unostentatious
to assign it ; but, my dear Miss Montresor, con-
sider my sister is well enough to see company
now, and therefore does not require a continu-
ance of your assiduous cares. Besides, suffer
me to speak to you as a friend solicitous for
your welfare — as your mother would speak did
she see how you are now situated. By leaving
town just at present, you are in all probability
depriving yourself of an excellent establishment.
Lord De Calmer remains here : I am aware he
will see nothing half so lovely as you, but we
all know men ; ' lorsqii'on lia pas ce qu'on aime,
il fa lit aimer ce qiion a," is a pretty general
maxim with them ; and it would be a pity, you

90 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

know, to lose such a fine young man as that,
for whom all mammas are angling, and all
misses are dying, merely out of a fit of senti-
ment for Augusta."

There were many things that made this
speech difficult to bear : luckily for Miss Mon-
tresor it awoke her pride more than any other
sentiment. What ! she remain any where one
moment with the avowed object of retaining
the affections of a man who waited only her
absence to send them wandering after some one
else ! She wait to be wooed, and acknowledge
a matrimonial design on any mortal breathing !
Let the reader fancy himself a rustic girl of
nineteen, educated far from cabals and intrigues,
who had hardly ever thought of marriage at
all, and if she did, but as the natural conse-
quence of long attachment ; and he may have
some faint idea of what those thoughts were
which crimsoned the whole face of Emily Mon-
tresor. She indeed could not help feeling the
speech as an insult in all its parts, but she
knew also Lady Georgiana did not mean it as
such; on the contrary, it was spoken in sin-

LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY. 91

cerity and friendliness, and Miss Montresor
laboured not to appear angry, while she thanked
her for the interest she took in her concerns.

" But my advice,'' said Lady Georgiana,
with one of her sweetest smiles, " is, like most
advice, utterly thrown away ! Well, take your
own way, my dear, but if you come to town
again, remember you owe me a visit, to make
up for your present savage conduct ; and if,"
she added, gaily tapping the still burning cheek
of Emily, " you would between this and then
allow yourself to discover that the age of chi-
valry is not more surely flown than that of
romance, you cannot conceive how much more
comfortably you would get on in life.*"

" More splendidly, at least,'' replied Emily
gently ; " your Ladyship must pardon my tak-
ing the word 'comfortable' under my special
protection : I have a regard for it, and don't
like to see it out of its place."

" But I think it is quite in its place. You
will not deny that I am very comfortable, and
yet I do assure you I never Avas in love in all
mv life, and how I was married I don't know.

92 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

I was talked into it, I believe; but I have gone
on quite well."

" I am very glad of it,"" replied Emily ;
" and I certainly, in my defence of my favourite
word, never meant to insinuate that it stood
for being in love.""

" Do you know," cried Lady Georgiana, " I
am quite anxious to discover whom you ever
saw comfortable, according to your acceptation
of the term, — enough so to be enviable."

" I have not seen many people, I confess ;
but, if your Ladyship would know whom I
ever saw sufficiently so to move my envy, I will
tell you, — never but one person in my life."

" And who was she ?"

" A young woman who lived in the country,
where I passed my days of childhood."

" Oh !" said Lady Georgiana, " I see the
whole ; she was separated from her lover, till,
time and constancy overcoming all dangers and
difficulties, they were happily united, and are
now patterns of conjugal affection and never-
ending felicity. Is not that it .^"

" That," said Emily, smiHng, " is a very

LORD AMESFORT'S FAxMILY. 93

pretty little story too, but it is not mine. The
woman, of whom I speak, is not now young, she
was probably never handsome, and is in a situa-
tion to esteem a plentiful repast an unexpected
luxury. She is unmarried, and never, that I
ever heard, had a lover, though she was young
when I first remember her."

" And her comforts, child ? Do, pray, make
haste; I am impatient to come to them, for
they do seem to me to be coming off second-
best."

" You shall hear. In her younger days she
supported by her labour her aged parents; and
when they slept in peace, she continued to live
in the same cottage with a sister, whose ill
health makes her rather a burden than an
assistance to her. Some years since, there was
a scarcity, and the situation of the poor was
taken into consideration by the gentlemen
around. A subscription was raised, and one
of their body appointed to see it properly dis-
tributed. It was reported that this poor woman
was in particular distress, and to her the gentle-
man went. She confessed her poverty, but de-

94 LORD amesfort's family.

clared it to be very bearable, declined taking the
weekly allowance, because there were so many
more that were in greater need than herself,
and finally recommended her neighbour, who
had a large family of young children, to the
gentleman^s sj^are money.

" He went as directed, relieved the mother and
her little ones, and then returning to my friend
Jane — , said he was informed that her sister
was ill, and therefore he must insist on her tak-
ing something to enable her to give some indul-
gences to the invalid. On this plea she acceded
to the request ; but when she found the assist-
ance was to be weekly, she called in a fortnight
on the person who had visited her, begging he
would take back the last money sent, for her
sister was now better and able to work, so that it
was a shame to deprive those who were starving
of the benevolence of the gentleman. Now, my
dear Lady Georgiana, when that woman took
back her money, and returned to her scanty
meal of potatoes,* was she not comfortable ?
and do not you, too, envy her .^"

* This fact occurred in Scotland.

LORD AMESFORTS FAMILY. 95

" My lovely enthusiast," said Lady Georgi-
ana, dispersing the tears that filled her radiant
eyes, " you would almost make me a convert
to the joys of a smoky hut and uneatable food.
Yes, doubtless, there are pleasures other than
the world are willing to call so, but they are
difficult of access, wliile the others lie under
our hand, and are adapted to the meanest
capacity.'*

'• ^lav I be permitted, without being thought
an outrageous pedant, to say with a justly cele-
brated author, ' Xous plafons notre bonheur au-
dessous de nous ;' and surely there is bad policy
as well as bad taste in continually compliment-
ing the inferior part of our nature at the ex-
pense of the superior."

" Good heavens !*' cried Lady Georgiana,
casting her eyes on the time-piece opposite to
her, " I was to have been an hour ago, by ap-
pointment, at the gardens in the New Road,
and here have I been spending my time talk-
ing sentiment with you. Good-Vye, my dear
Emily ; you must tell me more of your inimit-
able rustic another time ;'" and away drove Lady

96 LORD amesfort's family.

Georgiana Fairfax, to spend more money on a
plant to grace her anteroom, in which she
scarcely ever set her foot, than would have be-
stowed for a whole year the ordinary comforts
of life on poor Jane.

LORD A^MESFORT'S FAMILY. 97

CHAPTER IX.

*' Did you know,'' said De Calmer to his
friend, '' that the Dessameres had left Brook-
street ?''

" I knew they were to go yesterday, for I
took a walk ^nth my sister, before you or the
Dessameres were out of your beds."

" So, that was your secret appointment yes-
terday. \VTiat could you have to say to Miss
Montresor, whom you see every day, so very
particular ?"'

" Cannot I walk with my sister without some
very particular reason ?" said Adolphus smiling;
" or was I bound to inform you of all Emily's
motions ?"

" This is affectation, Montresor : you must
be pretty well aware none of them can be un-

VOL. I. F

98 LORD amesfort's family.

interesting to me. And so, if you please, we
will order our horses and pay her a visit, forth-
with."

" If you please,"" said Montresor, in a gentle
but firm tone, " we will do no such thing."

" How so, Adolphus .?" cried De Calmer, his
quick temper taking the alarm. " Am I to be
taught whom I may visit .^"

" You are at least to reflect whom you ought
to visit."

" Spare your rhetoric, Montresor ; I must
and will see your sister, until she forbid it."

" While I live," said Montresor, steadily,
though his eye flashed fire, " my sister shall
never be called upon to say to any man what is
unbecoming the delicacy and refinement of a
woman's feelings. How, consistently with these,
should she forbid you to visit her cousin, or to
seek her out in particular ? When Mrs. Dessa-
mere was allowed to see very few people, and
fewer still thought of seeing her, it would have
been sacrificing the claims of humanity to a
mere punctilio, if I had interfered in your
visits. To have showed how uncomfortable I

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 99

felt, would have displeased you, and vexed
Emily, I did neither : but now, Mrs. Dessa-
mere is no longer the invalid before whose com-
fort other considerations gave way. She is in
the country ; not far, but far enough to mark
the \'isits she may receive, and stamp upon
them some individual character. What would
be the character yours would bear, my Lord ?
Not such as you can expect her brother to
approve.'^

" Adolphus, how can you be angry so soon ?
What have I done to deserve this cold title
thrown into my face ? I love your sister, and
so do others : I confess it, which is more, pro-
bably, than they will do. You ordered me not
to flirt with her, and to the best of my ability I
have obeyed you : but not to see her ! Allow
that you are too hard upon me.'"

*' And ought I, my dear De Calmer,*" re-
plied Montresor, softened by his friend's affec-
tionate tone, " to lose, in the wish of granting
you present satisfaction, all idea of what my
poor Emily may suffer hereafter ? She has
been educated with such very different senti-
F 2

100 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

ments to those which pervade the fashionable
world in general, that the ground which you
and she stand upon is unequal. She has an
affectionate and grateful temper, is inclined to
believe well of every one, and more than well
of you, both as my friend, and as a person evi-
dently interested for her. This is all quite
well ; but here let it rest. She is neither vain
nor romantic, and will therefore be a great
while discovering how far your regard goes,
and what return she makes to it. Let the in-
timacy then, I entreat you, break off where it
naturally might — with her leaving town ; and
she will return to her retirement with a warm
interest in your welfare, that will in no way
affect her own peace of mind.""

" And be quite ready to dance at my wed-
ding !" said Lord De Calmer sullenly. " A
very enchanting prospect for me, no doubt V

" And if she loved you, Henry, what would
you gain ? the satisfaction of having made her
miserable !"

" What a divine idea, Adolphus ! If she
loved me ! — How much more beautiful she

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 101

would be ! — No, you can never know what it
is to be beloved by such a woman ; for there is
none other such !"

'^ You are then determined,"" said Adolphus
coldly; — " so then am I !"

" Why, what will you do ?"' cried De Cal-
mer haughtily.

" Save my sister!'*'' replied the other, " though
I lose my friend f and he instantly left the
room.

Forbearance was not among the good qua-
lities of the young Peer. " Am I," thought he,
" to be schooled by a boy — a nobody ? And for
what ? Would / injure Emily ? not for the
wealth of worlds ; — and that he knows. Let
him place her where he will, it will hardly be
out of my reach !'*'' And trying to comfort him-
self in the midst of his anger, he half formed
the plan of calling upon Mrs. Dessamere without
Adolphus. But he quickly renounced it ; he
dreaded Emily's enquiry after her brother, he
dreaded still more the look of grave reproach
with which that brother would meet him on his
return. He loitered down St. JamesVstreet,

102 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

greeted a few idlers, thought them more than
usually insipid, and returned home as uncom-
fortable as he set out, with the vague idea of
seeking Montresor. He found him in his room,
finishing a letter. De Calmer took a seat in
silence, and Adolphus, without noticing him,
folded up his letter, sealed and directed it.

" Do you write to your mother every day .?"
said Lord De Calmer.
" No, certainly !"
" But you wrote yesterday ?''"'
" I did."

" You are communicative, Adolphus ?*"
"I have nothing to communicate."
" You can listen, I presume .?" said De Cal-
mer half impatiently, but checked himself,
struck with the expression of sufPering im-
pressed on the features of his friend. Montresor
bowed an affirmative, and De Calmer conti-
nued : " If Emily should at some future pe-
riod care a straw for me, where would be the
mighty objection to our union.? I suppose
some time or other I must marry, and why not
a woman I love .?"

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 103

" If you ask my advice," said Adolphus
gravely, " I should recommend you not to
think of marrying at your age, with your dis-
position, and in a profession liable at any mo-
ment to expose you to dangers, well fitting a
single man, but unsuiting the father of a fa-
mUy."

" So then," cried De Calmer revi\ang, '* you
are for keeping all soldiers and sailors bache-
lors ! I suppose you will give poor parsons
leave to marry, and breed beggars to encumber
the State ?"

" It was not to them, but to you, I was
speaking ; and I do think, even if we were to
have peace directly, that it is great folly in a
young man of one-and-twenty to tie himself for
life, before he can be certain that the day will
never come when he will repent his rashness,
and regret that his wife neither extends his in-
fluence by her connexions, nor adds to his com-
forts by her fortune."

" You terrify me to death, Adolphus. But if
I can only see Emily upon this condition ?"
" No, Henry," said Montresor firmly, " not

104 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

even on that hard condition can you see my
sister more, if I have power to prevent it."

" This is too unreasonable ! I am not to see
her ! I am not to marry her ! why, who the
devil is to prevent me ?"

Adolphus remained silent : he took up the
letter to his mother, and seemed to ponder on
the words : he laid it down, and unconsciously
he sighed deeply.

" What," pursued De Calmer, " can tempt
you to be making yourself miserable, as well
as me, perhaps as well as your sister .f^"

Adolphus started, and looked up with a sud-
den expression of pain, doubt, and resentment.
" You are trifling with me cruelly," he said ;
" but I will not believe you against yourself:
you have not had the barbarity to blast the
fresh spring of Emily^s life .?"

" God forbid !" cried De Calmer fervently,
" I would rather strew its Autumn with flow-
ers : but tell me, I beseech you, why you would
disunite us."

" Because you are neither old enough, nor
steady enough, to marry with any prospect of

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 105

comfort to you, and still less to my sister. A
little reflection will teach you I am right ; and
if you will promise me not to attempt seeing
her at present, I will not send this letter, which,
I confess, is to recall her from her present visit,
and which has cost me many a painful effort to
write, conscious of the grief it vnll be to my
poor mother, who has already known grief
enough."

De Calmer's pride rose, but the kindness o^
his heart proved the stronger. " I will not give
you all pain by my obstinacy," he said at last,
after a long struggle ^nth himself. " In less
than a fortnight I shall be of age. I must go
to my own house then, and also to Amesfort
Castle. I will speak to my uncle : he has made
one of your good worldly matches, of which
he has repented ever since ; and he will per-
suade you, though I cannot, that mine is the
wisest plan of the two. Perhaps the7i I may
get leave to see Emily.''

" Yes, and marry her too," said Montresor
with sudden animation. " If your love stands
the test of absence, unsupported by any cer-
F 5

106 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

tainty of its being returned, and Lord Amesfort
does not convince you you have been dreaming,
which, of course, he will try to do ; then, in-
deed, I shall not fear to trust my Emily's
happiness in your hands — then I may be
allowed to be selfish, and to rejoice in having
gained for my brother the man I had chosen
for my friend." And the two young men rushed
into each other's arms, with the firm conviction
that nothing hereafter could disunite them.

Not many days after this conversation, a
note was brought to Montresor, as De Calmer
was leaving the room, but, catching a glimpse
of Emily's hand-writing, he returned. Adol-
phus smiled, but, having cast his eye over it,
flung it across the table to his friend, without
any comment, who read rapidly —

" Are we never to see you more, my dearest
brother ? I have counted the days in vain, for
none of them brings you. Augusta laughs at
my restlessness, and declares you have spoiled
me, by giving us so much of your time of late ;
but you know I always was spoiled, and I
cannot give up the privilege. We are not near

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 107

SO dull as we were in town, for our invalid is
quite alive, and our society is not unpleasant.
There are several musical people near us, and
these heavenly evenings we sit out near a sweet-
briar hedge and out-sing the nightingales. Our
nearest neighbour is a Mrs. Albany, a widow,
somehow or other related to Lady Amesfort, —
whose only child, Isabella, is to spend some
time shortly with her ladyship, so you will
meet her again. She is a very pleasing, quiet
person : her serenity seems to depend so much
on herself, that I much doubt any outward cir-
cumstance disturbing it ; but she has very little
of that enjoyment of mere existence which I
thought always belonged to youth and health.
They were once in very affluent circumstances,
which are never alluded to either by mother or
daughter. Mrs. Albany is too proud to solicit
compassion, and Isabella does not think they
are entitled to it. I once asked her if she was
not alarmed at having to make her debut en-
tirely among strangers ; and she answered in
a quiet way, ' It is disagreeable, but it is a
duty I owe my mother, who is miserable at my

108 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

being buried alive, as she calls it. It cannot
last long, and the dulness of being quite alone
will reconcile her to my return for good.' Al-
though I talk to you so much of my new
friend, you may come here without any risk of
falling in love with her ; for she has no enthu-
siasm, and the charm of freshness and repose
in her features which attracted me, would be
lost upon you. General Montresor is so impa-
tient for his daughter's return, that if you
delay much longer, we shall be on the road
for Wales.

" Adieu, my dear Adolphus.

" Yours, E. M."

Lord De Calmer turned over the page, ex-
claiming, " Ah ! I was in hopes there would
be a P.S." It was not, however, a very satis-
factory one. " Mrs. Dessamere begs you will
offer her apology to Lord De Calmer for hav-
ing kept his Venetian ballad so long ; she will
take care he has it previous to his quitting
town."

" Now really that is very pretty of Mrs.
Dessamere to give me an excuse for a visit."

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 109

" I should rather think," observed Adolphus,
" that her saying she will send it to you im-
plies she does not expect to see you.""

" Well," said De Calmer, laughing, " it is
at least a very ingenious phrase, since it will
stand for any thing any body chooses. Whe-
ther it was intended to mean encouragement or
repulse, matters little to me, who in neither
case can be ruled by it."

110 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER X.

The long desired period of independence
arrived, and Henry Baron De Calmer took
possession of the moderate patrimony left him
by his father, and which had benefited consi-
derably by a pretty long minority, and the
judicious care of his maternal uncle. He had
been eager for Adolphus to accompany him to
his own home ; but the season was so far ad-
vanced, that every one had been willing to leave
London, and there were hardly guardsmen
enough to go through the regular routine of
duty. Leave of absence could not be obtained,
and Montresor consoled himself with the idea
that it would be a still fairer trial of his friend^s
constancy and steadiness, if there was nothing
near him that could recall Emily. The first

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. Ill

visit he paid his cousin was to announce De
Cahner's departure, and he saw, with pain,
the blank look with which his sister received
the intelligence. He waited eagerly for some
comment from her, but he waited in vain.
Nothing was said but by Mrs. Dessamere,
who, after regrets and eulogiums, made the
ordinary enquiry into the state of his pro-
perty ; on hearing it was small, she exclaimed,
'• What a pity ! for of course he must marry
an heiress."'

" That impatient gesture,'' said Miss Albany
in an under-tone to Miss Emily, " says he will
not.''

" Indeed it says nothing," quickly retorted
Miss Montresor, who tried in vain to shake off
the air of consciousness she felt to be apparent.
" Lord De Calmer, I suppose, will marry as
other men of his class do, but hardly at his age,
with the full enjoyment of his liberty strong
upon him."

" I should not tliink he was a marrying
man," said Adolphus mildly, and trying not
to look at his sister ; but her quick ear caught

112 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

the tone. '^ So," thought she, " my brother
fears that I am flattering myself with having
won the heart of his friend ! Do I tliink he
cares for me .?" — and a thousand things crowded
on her memory, which seemed all to answer
yes. "" But surely I never thought he had
the least idea of marrying me. N — o, I be-
lieve not :" and not quite satisfied with her
conversation with herself, she turned abruptly
to Isabella Albany, to ask if she had copied out
the verses for her ?

" Yes,"" answered Isabella, fixing her steady
eye upon her, " I have ; but as they are in
great favour with me, pray, when you read
them, promise me to think a little more about
them than you do at this moment."

Emily's pride stood up to her relief, and her
anger kept down her confusion. With a look
between wonder and displeasure, she calmly
replied : " I shall take your advice, as I mean
to do your favourite justice."

" You are an inexplicable sort of a person,"
thought Miss Albany, whose great amusement
was the study of character. " It would seem

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 113

I have seen but one side of the picture yet ; for
here it is quite in another point of view !" Isa-
bella was far from wishing to become the con-
fidante of her new friend : on the contrary, she
admired her the more for her want of com-
municativeness on that subject, on which Miss
Albany had seen so many most overpoweringly
diffuse. But she could seldom resist the temp-
tation of showing her penetration, often as she
had been the victim of this foible by being
doomed in consequence to listen to histories
without end or interest.

When Miss Montresor found her friend was
really not inquisitive, she returned to her for-
mer manner; and as she became better ac-
quainted with Isabella, found her conversation
the best cure for that languid dejection that
would sometimes creep over her. It was indeed
a rehef, after having uttered and listened to all
those customary words honoured with the name
of conversation, which every-day visits entailed,
to sit half an hour beside Miss Albany, whose
retentive memory and sound judgment ren-
dered her at once the sort of companion Emily

114 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

delighted in, and the one most likely to be
useful to her. These young women had taken
opposite roads in every thing ; even when they
learnt the same thing, they were amused to find
how rarely it had been undertaken from the
same motive, or carried on upon the same plan.
Emily was like a fine-toned instrument, full of
grace and flexibility : there was about her an
enchanting harmony, produced by the most
perfect good taste, which good sense would not
suffer to degenerate into fastidiousness; and
the most refined sensibility, which the native
energy of her mind saved from sickly affecta-
tion. Strongly susceptible of all pleasing or
benevolent emotions, her generous incredulity
of evil saved her from most feelings of a dif-
ferent nature.

Isabella was rather the deep and powerful
organ, whose full notes swelled on the listener's
ear, and sunk into his heart, without captivat-
ing by variety, or cheering by one light natural
tone. The pupil of Nature was by far the
most fascinating, but the votary of Art was the
most independent. She studied others as a

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 115

science, but she knew herself also ; and if the
pride of talent sometimes overtook her, it was
instantly checked by the only feeling able to
check it, a religious one. Emily's religion was
one of enthusiasm and love, pure as the un-
tainted breath of morning, cheerful as the
buoyant spirit of youth. Isabella's was like
her own character, more severe, more omnipo-
tent, more awful : it was serene, — not the se-
renity of an unruffled lake, but the tranquillity
of the lion, majestic in repose.

An early acquaintance with mankind had
given something of sarcasm to the feelings and
expressions of Miss Albany. She had known
all the consequence riches confer, and she had
wondered to see that while she continued in
every respect the same, the death of her father,
and the loss of more than three fourths of their
once splendid income, placed her upon a very
different footing with her acquaintance, — and
what hurt her more, even with some of her
friends. She was too well tempered to com-
plain, too highly principled not to forgive ; but
she acquired the habit of weighing all future

116 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

regard, professed for her, by the equitable scale
of the character and disposition of the indivi-
dual concerned. She used to say of Emily,
that her first act was to make her transgress all
her wise rules ; for that she had been charmed
by her, long before she had any one good rea-
son to produce why she ought to have been
charmed. But though imagination and sym-
pathy with strangers was quite out of Isabella's
way, it is certain that both must act to pro-
duce that quick perception, by which persons
of superior abilities, and excellence of dispo-
sition, invariably find each other out ; nor is
the attraction of metals more certain, than that
which exists between all energetic minds, how-
ever different and uncongenial they may at first
sight appear.

Miss Montresor was comforted at her sepa-
ration from her friend, with the idea that
Adolphus would see her constantly at Amesfort
Castle ; and that her deep insight into character,
and greater familiarity with English society,
would be of considerable service to him. Emily
was hurt at first to see how little her brother

lord^amesfort's family. 117

seemed pleased with Isabella: she never ima-
gined he would attach himself to her, but she
was anxious he should do her justice, and al-
most ready to quarrel with him when she saw
the little progress her friend made in his re-
gard. Miss Albany only laughed, and assured
her, she saw it written in the stars, that the
time would come when they would be great
friends ; — " not,"" she would say, " that I could
ever bring that beautiful brother of yours to
swell the list of my vassals ; but, if I don't ac-
quire influence over him in less than six months,
I give you permission never to believe my pre-
dictions in future."

" Well," said Emily, " I trust you may, as
I am sure it will always be exerted for his
benefit ; but hosv you will set about it, is more
than I can guess.

" Only give me time, my dear ! Consider,
he dotes upon grace, and timidity, and playful-
ness, and feeling, and all those things that are
so interesting in a very pretty woman, and so
insupportable in any other. He thinks me
cold, methodical, matter-of-fact, and he is re-

118 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

pelled; but, when he wants a friend, and no-
thing else, one whose advice may be service-
able, he will come to me, and only talk non-
sense with his mistress. Do you know, I am
vain enough to be quite satisfied with the part
allotted me."

" You are a very strange girl, and I am as
ready to do justice to your wonderful powers
as any one can be, but yet your confidence in
them surprises me."

" If you had been called upon to employ
your's as much as unexpected calamity has
taught me to do, you would cease to wonder.
But I am happy that you have been spared
both cause and effect ; for I feel, if I met myself
any where, I should not like myself at all ; and
I don't believe any body ever did, or ever will,
take a spontaneous fancy to me, which, entre
nous, I think prodigiously hard."

Colonel Dessamere had been some time shoot-
ing in Norfolk : he was to join his wife at Ge-
neral Montresor's. Augusta and Emily pro-
ceeded by easy journeys, and amused them-
selves in viewing all the objects of curiosity "on

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 119

their route. ^Irs. Dessamere had travelled
much abroad, but not at all in England, and,
until the last twelve months. Miss Montresor
had not been two miles from home, so that they
had much to see, which furnished them at least
with conversation on their road. Mrs. Montre-
sor had quitted the General's some time, and
now rented a small house in the celebrated Val-
ley of Llangollen. Mrs. Dessamere took her
house in her way to her father's; and, hav-
ing safely deposited Emily, saw, for the first
time, her once beautiful mother.

Mrs. Montresor was the mere wreck of love-
liness, but, like the dying rose, preserved in
decay traces of those charms by which she had
once been so fatally distinguished. The colours
of her mind seemed faded like those of her face;
her feeble voice would mellow into greater
sweetness, but could not rise to animation ; her
listless manner varied only when addressing her
children, and its tenderness was never then un-
mixed with pain. She did not look like one
struggling with some heavy blow of fate ; if re-
sistance ever had been made, the time was past;

120 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

all now was blank, desolate, and hopeless. Like
one who uncomplainingly drinks daily of the
dregs of existence, the patient victim did not
venture to put aside the cup of bitterness, — did
not venture to wish for that rest, which was in
this world denied her. Mrs. Dessamere was in-
terested and affected ; but Emily, accustomed to
her mother's deep and silent dejection, was alive
only to the joy of again beholding her, and list-
ening to her languid assurance that the moun-
tain air had invigorated her.

The first few weeks of their re-union gave
equal pleasure to mother and daughter; but
when Emily had exhausted her powers of de-
scription, and her astonishment at many things
she had seen during her visit, Mrs. Montresor
saw with painful anxiety, that the prominent
features in her mind were Miss Albany and
Lord De Calmer. She spoke, indeed, more of
the former, but her mother could not help
dreading that she thought more of the latter,
and that it was not unlikely her regard for a
person so dissimilar to herself as Isabella,
sprung unconsciously from that person being a

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 121

sort of link between her and De Calmer. She
was the more confirmed in this suspicion by ob-
ser\'ing the quietness with which Emily waited
for the first letter from her friend, and the rest-
less uneasiness with which she looked for the
second, which was to announce her reception at
Amesfort Castle. Miss Montresor looked up to
Isabella, as to a being gifted with nearly super-
natural powers : wath almost sickly impatience
she longed for her opinion of Lord De Calmer ;
and such is the inconsistency of human nature,
that while Miss Albany's approbation would, in
her mind, have authorized and increased her
high opinion of him, one single comment unfa-
vourable to him, would, she felt, diminish her
regard, not for the person disapproved of, but
for her who ventured to disapprove.

VOL. I.

122 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER XL

FROM LORD DE CALMER TO ADOLPHUS
MONTRESOR, ESQ.

" Amesfort Castle.
'^ I AM in the humour to philosophise almost
as much as you, and not without reason, as you
do sometimes : all my hopes, wishes, plans, and
intentions, are overthrown and frustrated, and
that by the very circumstance that a few
months since would have given me the greatest
possible pleasure. You will perceive, I allude to
my regiment being ordered abroad. One thing
would have made this more bearable — your
going too ; and of this I have no sort of hope.
I came here immediately, on hearing what was
to become of me ; for this is the home I have
had for years ; and both my uncle and his dear
little wife would have had a right to call me
ungrateful, if I did not give my last days to

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 123

them ; — but I cannot do without you, so exert
yourself to get leave, and join me here immedi-
ately.

" Yours,

"DeCalmer;'

Rumours had reached Montresor of his
friend's destination, but he had, before this let-
ter, had no positive information. He hastened
to obey his summons, but various circum-
stances contributed to delay him in to\vn, so
that it was not until the fourth day after he re-
ceived it, that he got to Amesfort Castle; when,
to his inexpressible vexation, he found De Cal-
mer gone. ^liss Albany (who was established
there under the protection of the Countess)
told liim, she had no doubt of his speedy re-
turn, as she believed him to be only paying a
flying %'isit to Emily. Adolphus, with his
usual prudence, declaimed against so unreflect-
ing a step; and spoke long and eloquently
against engagements, which, while they harass-
ed a woman, and kept her in a state of pro-
tracted discomfort and suspense, often prejudi-
cial to her health, were a tie to men, which
G 2

124 LORD amesfort's family.

frequently annihilated the affection that had
produced them.

Isabella heard him quietly, but confessed her
fears were of a different sort ; and at last ven-
tured to say, " I am not one of those who com-
plain of advice not being taken : in all matters
not absolutely of principle, there is a great ab-
surdity in giving it, and it is fortunate that it
is not ahvays followed ; since, however good in
itself, it must be given according to the feelings
of another, and not of the person who is to act :
consequently, when it is taken, it generally paves
the way to an inconsistency ; for a man does
not the less revert to his own character, for hav-
ing for one moment followed that of his friend.
I think you have acted from a false point of
honour, in fearing to urge Lord De Calmer to
marry the woman he loved, and who has every
possible attraction and good quality to render
him happy, simply because that woman was
your sister, and that the world might call it a
good match for her. I hope he will forget all
your prudent suggestions, and propose at once

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 125

to Miss ^Montresor, or his visit will be the silli-
est thing possible, combining his own precipi-
tancy with your caution. If he hold his tongue
now, while the impression is strong, there is no
doubt of his doing the same on his return home,
when time will have weakened it."

"It is," said Montresor eagerly, " that
very unsteadiness that I dreaded for my sis-
ter. To lose a lover's heart may be painful,
but how can it be compared to losing a hus-
band's ? or what force is there in words to ex-
press all the strength of wretchedness which
lies in domestic woe ?''''

" I agree with you perfectly," gently rejoin-
ed ^liss Albany ; " but you suppose an ex-
treme case. I am not apt to judge very
favourably of human nature, — least of all, per-
haps, of men ; but I do not think them mon-
sters: and where a tolerably amiable man
marries so very sweet a creature as Emily,
(with whom, too, he once thought himself very
much in love,) I don't see how he can help
loving her when she is his wife, as much,

126 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

though not perhaps quite in the same way,
as he did at first*"

Montresor shook his head, for no one gives
up in an argument ; but he could not help
confessing to himself, that if Emily (as he
feared was the case) had really attached herself
to his friend, it would have been as well not
to have checked their intimacy. It was at
the very moment this conversation was passing
at Amesfort Castle, that Emily walked across
the vale in which she lived, to enquire after the
children of a labourer, who had been sick. As
she was returning, she saw a horseman ride
swiftly pass; and as the road he had taken
was not deemed very secure, she cut across a
near way to meet him, and warn him of his
peril. She perceived some country people had,
with the same view, joined the stranger ; and
she was on the point of turning back, when she
heard the well-known voice of De Calmer, en-
quiring for her mother^'s house. Emily's heart
bounded, as, springing lightly from her elevated
situation into the road, she called out, '' / will
be your guide !""

LORD amesfort's famh.y. 127

They were still at some distance from home,
and, it may be supposed, they did not walk very
fast. Yet De Calmer exclaimed, in the accent
of disappointment, " Why, here we are ! and
those people told me it was a long way.**^

" They do not measure as we do,'" said
Emily, with simplicity, and utterly unconscious
of the feelings she betrayed; but so was not
her companion, who, from the moment he first
perceived Miss Montresor, had been in a sort
of intoxication of delight, which prevented his
arranging a single idea, and which had fairly
put out of his head the excuse for his present
visit ; namely, his speedy departure for the
Continent. Nor was his happiness clouded
over by her reception : she did not, it is true,
say half the civil things he would have heard
and expected from any other woman to whom
he had paid a \4sit ; she did not even say she
was happy to see him, for it was too self-evi-
dent a fact to require assertion ; but she paid
him a compliment he with reason was proud
of — she forgot to ask after Adolphus ! That
brother so beloved, so deserving love, from

128 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

whom she had been some months separated,
was not mentioned, — was not thought of ; yet
Emily's eyes could beam with joyful serenity,
and her sweet voice, whose perfect modulations
changed with every passing thought, now sent
forth unalloyed the pure notes of gladness,
which rose to enthusiasm, or sunk into ten-
derness.

The heart of De Calmer dilated with affec-
tion more fervent and more pure than he had
ever before felt. The fulness of delight check-
ed his usually high spirits : happiness is better
than mirth, and never does it fail to subdue it.
The appearance of Mrs. Montresor accorded
with his new frame of mind. He could not
have borne a less lovely, interesting creature
for the mother of his Emily. He gazed on
her with hardly the power to say why he
came, so much was his attention caught by
a person so unlike any thing he had ever seen
before. The agitation of perceiving in the son
of her early friend the decided lover of her
daughter, lent to Mrs. Montresor something
of her former animation. She spoke of Lady

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 129

Frances \nth an energy that astonished Emily,
and charmed their guest ; nay, in naming Adol-
phus, she seemed almost to look forward on his
account with hope.

It was the first time she ever remembered
her mother speaking of the future but with
the deepest despondency. " It is," thought
she, " the magic of De Calmer's presence, that
extends its benign influence even to my care-
worn parent ;" and she could not be ungrate-
ful ! Hours may pass pleasantly, but, alas !
they will pass ; and the young lover was, how-
ever reluctantly, compelled to depart. He
took Mrs. Montresor's hand with emotion —
" When I return," said he, '* I hope to be al-
lowed to continue an acquaintance, to which I
have so many claims V

" When you return," said Mrs. Montresor,
gently pressing her cold transparent fingers on
his, " I shall at last be at rest; and that the more
willingly, with the persuasion that the son of
Lady Frances is worthy such a mother, inhe-
riting all her strength of affection, all her firm-
ness of principle."

G 5

130 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

" Believe me," he cried with warmth, " how-
ever unworthy I may be, to be compared with
her, affection for you and yours has been an
hereditary feeling with me. It is impossible I
should change !"

" So may the blessing of a mother rest on
you !" said Mrs. Montresor solemnly ; and De
Calmer, unable to reply, hastily attended the
summons of Fanny, who, with her sister, was
to walk through the valley with him. It w^as a
cold tempestuous night, and the child shivered
beneath its influence. At first, the selfishness
of man appeared, and the lover, unable to part
with Emily, tried to persuade himself it was
the usual climate of the country ; but anxiety
for her health at last prevailed, and he gen-
tly urged her return. At that moment, he
longed to say all he felt and wished. Distance
and dangers would be between them, and to
leave her without unburdening his mind of the
weight that oppressed it, was dreadful — was
almost impossible. Then rose the thought,
" What will Adolphus think of me? He with-
draws for a moment his guiding hand, and I

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 131

throw myself into the situation which I was
tacitly pledged to him to avoid, for the present,
at least. And why should I speak yet ? Am I
not sure of being always the same ? and am I
not sure she loves me ? as sure as if she told me
so ? Oh, doubtless !" and he pressed the hand he
held nearer to him. " No farther," he said at
last, decidedly ; "see what a night it is ! Adol-
phus would hardly have let you come out at
all ; and shall I love you less than a brother ?"
He stooped to kiss the child, caressed the
dog that followed them, but to Emily he gave
only a hurried ''God bless you!*" and the words
sunk deep to the heart that, for the first time,
was awake to the possibihty of their meeting no
more ! Like a fearful spectre, the thought
glanced by, " He may fall !" but it was too
horrid to stay, and Emily would have thought
it a distrust of Providence to have indulged it.

132 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER XII.

MISS ALBANY TO MISS MONTRESOR.

'' Amesfort Castle.
" Three weeks have elapsed since my arri-
val in your country, as you call it, and I have
never found time to say how I got here. I
have not, however, been less occupied with you
and yours, than if I had written the most sen-
timental scraps of poetry to you every hour.
You have seen Lord De Calmer, and heard
from Adolphus ; therefore, I may as well begin
with my own history, that being the only one
the aforesaid gentleman will have omitted en-
tirely; whether from ignorance or indifference,
is a point that, for the sake of my self-love, I do
not choose to investigate too strictly. To you,
who have a sort of passion for your mother, I

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 1S3

need not say with what reluctance I left mine ;
for an indefinite time too ! and to take up my
abode with strangers ! You may believe I mo-
ralized all the way on the ' pomps and vanities
of this wicked world;' and albeit little disposed
to rural cots overhung with clustering roses, I
did sigh for one just then, and fancied my poor
mother in a neat quiet parlour, and myself
working on one side of the fire, while puss
purred on the other.

"It was very cold and uncomfortable, and I
was glad to exchange my rattling hack for
Lady Amesforfs easy carriage, which met me
half-way. Not a leaf was left on the large trees
near the house ; and 1 thought their height,
with their long branches sweeping to and fro
with the wind, added to the desolate aspect a
winter's evening gave to all surrounding ob-
jects. I looked for every thing you had de-
scribed in such glowing terms ; and scarce could
my cold eye trace the spots to which enthusi-
asm or local attachment had lent so many
charms. Still, in fine weather, I can fancy it a
beautiful country ; and I marked with pleasure

134 LORD amesfort's family.

the cottages of the poor carefully repaired, and
weather-proof. They were not swept out of the
way, because a view might be improved by
their removal, nor were they beautified in any
absurd manner, to make the contrast greater of
outward adorning and inward misery. The
children looked healthy, and occupied ; and I
augured better of the Earl of Amesfort than I
had ventured to do before.

" As I drove into the park, a gong announced
the hour of dressing for dinner, and I was
shown into my own apartment immediately. I
was finishing my toilet in some trepidation,
when a gentle tap at my door announced Lady
Amesfort. Never, then, did I see a more fault-
less model of beauty ! Her sweet accents and
courteous greeting would have restored my
composure, had I lost it ; but struck with such
dazzling loveliness, and with her extreme
youth, (for I had fancied her my mother's
contemporary,) I forgot the awkwardness of my
situation, and only gazed in mute astonish-
ment and admiration. She presented me to
the Earl — a distant bow, returned by a pro-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 135

found courtesy on my part, was all that passed
between us.

" My mother assured me I should find Lord
Amesfort still young and handsome ; I thought
him neither. He is shrouded in reserve, which
looks like gloom and pride ; but I am more in-
clined to think him unhappy, than morose.
There is no animation of countenance at pre-
sent, but surely it only sleeps : feeling has been
there, it has passed away, and withered all it
touched ; but some hidden string, some secret
chord there must be, if I am not much mis-
taken in my knowledge of physiognomy, that if
rightly touched, would yet send forth notes of
melody, though deeply tinctured with sadness.
Lady Amesfort's sweet face leaves almost as
much room for speculation as her Lord's,
though in a different way. If he looks colder
than he is, she looks more in earnest, more
ahve, more willing to be pleased than she really
is. She is idle and dissipated, but she has a
mind many tones higher than her education or
her society. Little as she seems ever to have
reflected, there is an undefined consciousness of

1S6 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

this, which has prevented her forming any
friendships. She has heard sentiment laughed
at, and she is ready to join in the laugh ; yet
it is not from coldness or egotism, but because
she has met with nothing to excite it. I cannot
help regretting her having studied so little the
character of her husband. She would be the
happier, and certainly the nobler creature, for
having her dormant powers brought forward;
and I never saw a woman for whom I should
more dread their being roused into action by
some foreign impulse.

" I will not tire out your patience with com-
ments on my patroness, but express some of the
admiration I felt for Lord De Calmer. He is
delightful in appearance and manner. I cannot
be a judge of any thing beyond, as I saw him
but for three days; and besides, I could not
well be impartial, as he paid the greatest atten-
tion to me, when he found I was your friend.
Now, as handsome young men don't take parti-
cularly to me in general, the novelty of the case
quite bewildered me. I told you, your brother
and I would be sworn friends ; and so we are !

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY 137

To be sure, I cannot deny that we quarrel
about ten times in every day, besides never
very cordially agreeing about the veriest trifle ;
but he already appeals to me about a thousand
things ; and though he takes care to contradict
me whenever it can be done with any tolerable
regard to politeness, he follows my advice the
next minute. I wish he would so far follow it as
to spend the Christmas with you and your mo-
ther, instead of at this place ; but he says Mrs.
Montresor urges liis remaining with his guar-
dian ; and I cannot wonder at a young man lik-
ing a very pleasant house, where he is made a
great object of. The Earl, in his quiet way, pays
him the greatest attention ; and delightful as he
is, the ladies, of course, cannot fail of making a
fuss with him. I tried to give him lessons on
flirtation ; but he is not an apt scholar, and
really listens to the pretty things that are said
to liim with an air of abstraction, or impa^
tience, quite chilling. I have surely made up
for my long silence, so I desire to be thanked
without loss of time. Ever yours,

" Isabella Albany.''

138 LORD amesfort's family.

It was some time after Emily received this
letter, that, as Miss Albany went into the libra-
ry at the hour which she was accustomed to
devote to reading, she was surprised at meeting
the Earl. She drew back, fearful of intruding;
but he called her in, and, for the first time since
she had become an inmate of his house, address-
ed her. " Miss Albany, it was with a view of
seeing you, that I came here now; so pray sit
down and listen to me."

Isabella obeyed, wondering what this singu-
lar person could have to say to her. The Earl
continued ; " Is it as a friend of Emily Mon-
tresor's, that you take such particular charge of
her brother, or are you interested for Adolphus
himself .?"

Most young women would have blushed,
and hesitated ; but Isabella was not like most
young women. She smiled at the oddity of
the question, and replied unmoved, " I was
very much charmed with Emily, to whom
I was first known, and was, therefore, on
her account, sooner interested for her bro-
ther : but Adolphus is not a person to know

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 139

without admiring; and if he had never had
a sister, I should not he less solicitous for his
welfare than I now am/'

" That is spoken with your own frankness,
Miss Albany, and I thank you for it. I fear
you will be less patient at my next question.
Would you consent to become his wife, at his
request and mine ?""'

" Not now, my Lord, at the request of the
whole world."'

" Alas !" said the Earl sadly, '' 'tis as I
feared, and some other engagement on your
part will overthrow all my plans."

" I am at a loss," said Miss Albany gently,
" to guess what your Lordship's plans are, and
why they were formed ; but, if it is any satis-
faction to you to know I am free, I will not
conceal it from you. I would not marry Adol-
phus, because he would think me a stoic unde-
serv'ing his vivid affections; and I, perhaps,
might think him in a raging fever, when he was
only in a fit of enthusiasm. I wish to be his
friend, because I admire and like him ; and be-
cause I flatter myself my cooler judgment, and

140 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

better acquaintance with ordinary men and wo-
men, such as even geniuses must mix with, may
be of use to him."

'' I sincerely wish,"" said Lord Amesfort,
rising, " that your influence may increase, for
I am satisfied it will be rightly directed, and I
fear he stands in need of it." And, without
another observation to explain why he put such
unexpected questions, he quitted the library.

He left Miss Albany to reflections which, for
that morning, put reading out of her head.
She was aware, that in her fate the Earl could
feel no other interest than that of common hu-
manity ; it was for Adolphus, then, he formed
plans, which Isabella could not help thinking
liis extreme youth rendered premature. From
what evil, then, would his early marriage shield
him ? In vain she considered : his disposition,
his situation, all appeared to her to unfit him
for engagements that would check his advance
in life. Still musing on what she could not
make out, she descended the flight of steps
that led up to the library. In the vestibule
beneath, she beheld Adolphus, who stopped to

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 141

ask if the snow was too deep for her to walk
out. While he yet s|X)ke, Lady Amesfort ap-
peared at the top of the steps, facing them.
She had her boy clinging in sport to her
shoulders, and she ran so heedlessly with her
laughing burden, that she fell.

Isabella, who never lost her presence of
mind, exclaimed immediately, " The child is not
hurt !'" Montresor did not utter a word ; but,
springing forward, he raised Lady Amesfort
immediately, and as she had sprained her ankle,
and stood with pain and difficulty, he took her
in his arms, and spying through a door, which
the Earl at this instant opened, a sofa, he bore
her swiftly to it. He placed her upon it, he
knelt beside her, but still he did not speak.
He dreaded to hear her say she was hurt. His
anxious looks brought a faint smile to the fea-
tures of the suffering Countess; she gently
pressed the hand that held her's, and raised
her soft blue eyes with an expression to which,
from the first moment, the heart of Adolphus
had but too deeply responded.

Miss Albany, who had gone for proper

142 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

remedies to allay the pain of the sprain, en-
tered with the child, who was quite unhurt,
and had assisted her in carrying the things.
One glance explained the conversation of the
morning. The magnificent outline of Mon-
tresor's face and form, full of strength and
earnestness and powerful meaning, was finely
contrasted with the beautiful sylph over whose
recumbent figure he bent. Near them, but
totally unobserved, erect and gloomy, towered
the Earl. Isabella staggered beneath the
weight of what she held, to which before she
had not been sensible — an icy fang seemed
fixed upon her heart — And was it come to this?
and was the happiness of these two interesting
beings the sport of a wayward, lawless passion ?
It was very dreadful, and she sighed so deeply,
as she bathed Lady Amesforf s ankle, that look-
ing up, the Countess said in her sweet accents,
" Why, my dear Isabella, how pale you are ! I
do not believe I am so much hurt as you.^'

" How I wish you were not,^' said Miss Alba-
ny fervently ; but she spoke in a low voice, and
Lord Amesfort alone listened or understood.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 143

" Shall I do that ?'' said he kindly ; " you
have, probably, not put on so many bandages as
I have.''

Lady Amesfort involuntarily shrunk back,
and Adolphus started with a look to which
alarm and confusion lent the appearance of
hostility.

" Are you sorry for mamma ?'"* said the child,
looking with infantine wonder at his father.
Isabella felt the reproach more keenly than the
parents, whose thoughts were directed else-
where.

" You are in your father's way, my dear,"
said Montresor, in a tone which, by strong
effort, was steady ; and, taking the boy in his
arms, he withdrew to the window. As he

pi'essed the child to his heart, he continued to

■J .

;raze on its mother ; but liis countenance did

pot now betray the agitation and tenderness

which marked it but a moment before. His

'feelings had taken another turn: it was no

longer the being he loved, and she only, that

occupied his harassed mind ; it was guilt, and

misery, and headstrong passion, and keen re-

144 LORD amesfort's family.

morse. It was as if at that moment, the first
in which he had ever seen the Earl bestow one
thought on his wife, some new idea had flashed
upon him, some dreadful secret had been re-
vealed. The veil in which so carefully he had
wrapped his inmost feelings, conceahng them
even from himself, was rent, and in this first
overwhelming moment he had no power to
think ; he could only feel — feel like some lofty
tree that the whirlwind has uprooted, but
which, even in its fall, preserves a fearful con-
sciousness of what it has been, and what it is !
Isabella watched him with painful anxiety : it
was some relief to her uneasiness to see com-
posure restored to the Countess ; her face was
pale, but placid ; and her manner, though de-
pressed, lost none of its wonted courteousness,
when she addressed her husband.

Miss Albany, accustomed from her infancy
to direct her quick discernment on her own
feelings, as well as on those of others, did not
suppose it possible so little to know one's self,
as to recover serenity without the internal con-
sciousness that all was right. " There is but

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 145

one victim here/' thought she ; " unrequited
love withers of itself; all will yet be well/'
While these flattering hopes enabled her to
draw her breath more freely, the young Coun-
tess was busied accounting to herself for the
momentary embarrassment which the EarFs
unexpected presence had caused her. " I see
him so seldom,'" thought she ; " I was so like
an intruder in his room !"

In the innocence of her heart, she believed
her love for Adolphus to be no more than the
equitable homage due to superior excellence :
like aU first attachments, it was so well in-
trenched by illusions, pure and brilliant as the
symphony of angels, that a mind, which neither
education nor reflection had contributed to
strengthen, easily yielded to its enchanting in-
fluence. She had scarcely reasoned herself into
the belief that her husband's attention had
only surprised, without annoying her, than she
looked round for Montresor. She started at
the wild and troubled expression of his features,
and, in her most winning accents, asked him if he
were ill ? His answer was like ice in the heat

VOL. I. H

146 LORD amesfort's family.

of summer ; and Lady Amesfort, who loved too
devotedly, to have marked undismayed the
most trifling change, remained aghast and be-
wildered at so sudden an alteration. Adolphus
did not trust himself to look at her, but her
silence gave him more pain than her reproaches
would have done. He wished himself away,
yet was rooted to the spot. At last he moved
towards the door as gently as if he had thought
she could not see him depart if she did not
hear him. The child caught him as he passed,
exclaiming, " Mamma wants you." He turned
fearfully round, but his eyes were fixed on the
ground, as he said reluctantly, " Did your
Ladyship call me ?''"'

" Oh, no !'' said the boy, " she only looked as
if she wanted you."

" She does 7iot want me, child," said Montre-
sor impatiently, laying his hand on the door, —
but the tremulous voice of her he loved arrest-
ed him. It was only his name, indeed, and it
was spoken so low, she might not have meant
him to hear it ; — but it was irresistible — and he
looked up. Her tearful eyes were more than

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 147

he could stand ; he forgot every thing but her,
and springing forward, he would have thrown
himself at her feet, and, in the frenzy of the
moment, have poured out his full heart, and all
his newly-discovered feelings, had not the cold,
steady grasp of Isabella restrained him. " You
are a child !"" said she, with that command-
ing air few people ever thought fit to resist ;
" don't you see this awkward accident has
made Lady Amesfort quite nervous, and is this
a time to give way to your impetuous temper .''""*

" Have I deserved your anger too ?''^ said he,
in the quiet tone of despair; and throwing him-
self in a chair, he covered his face with his
hands.

" f did not think," said the Countess, "Isa-
bella could speak so harshly. This is a day for
every body to appear in new characters."

" But we like our own best," said Miss Al-
bany, laughing; " so never fear but we shall all
return to them in time. Now, had I not better
wheel you out of this cold gloomy apartment ?''''

" Indeed I shall be most happy to get out of
it, for I have been very uncomfortable in it ;"
H 2

148 LORD amesfort's family.

and the Earl rang for the servants to move her
as she chose, leaving Adolphus in quiet posses-
sion of the deserted room. He did not remain
there long, for he fancied there was something
in the air of the place that prevented his
arranging his thoughts. He was not much
more successful in his own room, but by dinner-
time he had come to the resolution of paying
his mother a visit. He remembered the advice
Miss Albany had given to this effect, and now
seemed the moment for adopting it. The
Countess did not appear at dinner, and it was
a relief to him ; for if he had seen her he would
have felt as if he were abandoning her.

" Have you any letters to Emily ?" said he,
addressing Miss Albany, as she rose from table ;
" I shall see her to-morrow.""

" I will certainly write,'' was all she said ;
but Montresor had the satisfaction to see the
gloom disperse on her brow, and a warm smile
of approbation and regard replace her cold
averted look. He spent his evening in gloomy
silence and abstraction, and retired early. On
his table lay a letter; he opened it mechani-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 149

cally, and saw with surprise several bank-notes
fall out of it : with still greater surprise he
read a few lines in the EarFs hand, claiming a
right, as his guardian, to furnish him with
whatever was requisite ; slightly touching on
his overstrained delicacy, in having never taken
advantage, while in town, of the permission
given him to draw on his banker ; and observing,
that as he had more money in his hands that
would be Adolphus's on his coming of age, he
was not making him any present. It was
worded with kindness, amounting to affection ;
but ]Montresor saw but one phrase, beginning,
" When we meet in town."**

" So, then," he cried, " we are not to meet
before. I was leaving this for a short indefinite
period, and my patron thinks fit to expect I
should return to it no more ! We shall meet
in town ! Yes ; what a meeting ! I shall not
be under the same roof with her ; I shall hear
her speak, but it will no longer be her feelings
and her remarks — it will be the language of the
world — the language of others. I shall see
her, but will it be really she ? or, rather, would

150 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

not her picture answer every purpose as well ?
She will sing, too, but it will not be for me !
others will listen and applaud, and on others
she will smile." Such was the train of feelings
that chased repose from the pillow of Montresor.
He had ordered the carriage early, but he
now resolved to delay the moment of his depar-
ture, as he persuaded himself he ought to take
leave of the Earl in person. " Since I go for
so long, perhaps for ever, a written adieu would
be ungracious,'" he repeated to himself; not
choosing to own that the latent hope of seeing
Lady Amesfort once more, lent him new ani-
mation, and conferred all the necessity on his
change of measures. Before, however, he could
give any directions, Lord Amesfort entered his
apartment. He seemed hurt, almost agitated,
and abruptly began — " I am sorry, Adolphus,
to interfere with your plans, particularly when
I approve of them as highly as in the present in-
stance, but I cannot suffer you to go yet. Lady
Amesfort's accident assumes a more serious ap-
pearance than I had any notion of at first. She
has had so much fever, they have thought it

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 151

right to bleed her ; and as she is to be kept as
quiet and composed as possible, I wish you to
delay your departure a few days, lest its sud-
denness might, in her present weak state, affect
her."

This guarded speech conveyed meanings
which brought the blood into Montresor's face.
He did not dare express his alarm at Lady
Amesforf s illness, his satisfaction at being de-
tained thus without any fault of his own, or his
anxiety to see her. He murmured something
about his willingness to obey the EarFs com-
mands ; and then spoke of the money enclosed
to him the preceding night. The Earl silenced
him, by the repeated assurances that it was his
own property, and, therefore, if he would not
have it, he had only to send it to his mother
and sisters.

152 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER XIII.

Two weary days Adolphus dragged on, not
only without seeing the Countess, but without
any message from her, or any particulars respect-
ing her health. The Earl answered his enqui-
ries in general terms, which were not much
more satisfactory than the replies of the ser-
vants. Every one seemed in league to torment
him ; some by their ignorance, and others by
their wonder at his being so inquisitive. He
thought Lord Amesfort ready to appear obliged
to any one but him for their anxiety for the
Lady of the house ; and one old woman, who had
been long on a visit, and was a sort of relation,
or dependant of the EarFs, put the finishing
stroke to his misery, by hinting, with a very
important face, that as her good Lord did not

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 153

appear alarmed, there were doubtless reasons
for her Ladyship's iUness that would be far
from distressmg to hiui. ^lontresor had never
before felt the emotion of hatred towards any
living being, and he now turned abruptly from
his officious informant, that his eye might not
glare abhorrence on her. He longed for wings
to transport him instantly from Amesfort Cas-
tle; and such was the power of imagination, that
when next he met the Earl, he almost fancied
there was on his countenance less than ordinary
gloom. It was only for a moment, for, as he
scanned those lines of thought, he felt they were
not intersected with one solitary feeble ray of
pleasure. The tranquillity that sat on his fea-
tures was not that of repose, but of stagnation ;
and when some transient motion ruffled the sullen
stillness of the surface, it subsided instantly,
lea-vang no trace behind.

Impatient at the ignorance in which he fan-
cied himself studiously kept, Adolphus wrote a
note to Isabella, who had never quitted Lady
Amesforf s room. Miss Albany merely scratch-
ed with a pencil, at the back of it, " So much
H 5

154 LORD amesfort's family.

better, that you may fulfil your original inten-
tion when you please.'' Montresor was morti-
fied : would they, indeed, both let him go with-
out seeing him ? If Miss Albany had but an-
swered his note in person, and said Lady Ames-
fort was ordered to see no one ! He read the
words over frequently, but could not see them in
a favourable light. It was, he thought, doing an
unkind thing in an unkind way. Lady Amesfort
might act from prudence, from fear of her hus-
band ; but Isabella! why was she to be cold
and indifferent ? He crushed the paper in his
hand ; and with his spirit more depressed than
he had ever yet experienced it, he sought the
Earl to take his final leave.

His guardian did not make any farther op-
position to his immediate departure, merely en-
trusting him with a parcel to his sister. Their
parting was not unkind ; but Adolphus felt un-
comfortable at his own coldness, with which he
reproached himself, as being a sort of ingrati-
tude : dissimulation of any sort was foreign to
his nature, and to be otherwise than stiff and
constrained was, at that moment, impossible.
When he had left the room, and gone a few

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 155

yards, he suddenly remembered something
more he had to say, and returned. When
he had quitted his guardian, they were both
standing: a profound bow, on his part, and
a half inclination from the haughty Peer, had
concluded the ceremony of taking leave. What,
then, was his wonder, to find Lord Amesfort,
on his return, lying with his face buried on the
sofa, uttering a faint moan, which was suffo-
cated by rising sobs !

" Have you hurt yourself, my Lord ?^' he
said, gently touching his shoulder.

The Earl sprang on his feet, as though he
had felt a murderer's grasp ; the tears trembled
in his blood-shot eyes ; but the wild sternness of
his air seemed alike to reproach them for fall-
ing on any one who dared to witness them. So
much misery and so much anger united, shock-
ed the already oppressed Adolphus. He apolo-
gized for his intrusion more by gesture than
words, and, with eyes bent to the ground, again
sought the door. The Earl stopped him, he
gasped for breath, and spoke, at first, inaudi-
bly ; but Montresor, understanding he wished
to know if he had returned for any particular

156 LoKD amesfort's family.

object, told him, without hesitation, the fact.

Lord Amesfort seemed content; he followed his

ward to the door, saying, he thought the air

would be of use to him.

The carriage had driven on ; for Adolphus,

who knew every inch of the country, meant to
walk across the fields to rejoin it. The Earl,
understanding his arrangement, turned another
way, leaving him to go by himself, as the dis-
tance was greater than he was inclined to try.
Montresor struck across the grounds, but, as
he came within view of the stile he was to go
over, he remembered that very near to it was a
bower, which Emily had constructed in former
days. " She will like to know how it looks,"
thought he, and he turned aside to visit it.
Its entrance was concealed to all who had not
known it formerly by the thick shrubs that
grew around ; and Adolphus saw with sur-
prise a pony of Lady Amesforfs tied to a tree
near it.

Before he had time to conjecture who could
be riding it, he had shaken off the snow that
hung on the leafless branches, and forced his
way into the grotto, where, seated on the mossy

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 157

bench, supported by Miss Albany, sat the
Countess herself. He stood transfixed in silent
astonishment. No gleam of satisfaction crossed
his mind at the conviction of her recovery ; for
love is a selfish passion, even with the most
generous dispositions : he was alive but to one
feeling — she might have seen me, and she
would not !

" Pardon my intrusion !" he said at last in a
frozen accent, for he was too proud to make it
a reproachful one : ^' 1 am happy to see your
Ladyship out again ;"" and bowing, he retreated
hastily. His precipitation only retarded his
progress through the overgrown brambles : he
opposed his strength to the fragile boughs,
which opened before him, and rebounding
struck against his face.

" If you could be more patient, you would
suffer less,"" said the warning voice of Isabella.
It was the tone of kindness and commiseration,
not of taunting reproof ; and Montresor felt all
it was intended to convey ; yet at such a mo-
ment to talk of patience was an insult to his
impetuous feelings, and he turned to her with
a smile of withering scorn. She stood at the

158 LORD amesfort's family.

narrow and darkened entrance of the grotto,
as if purposely to conceal her who rested with-
in ; nay, more like some fabled deity placed
there to guard her. There was at all times a
peculiar grandeur and self-possession in Miss
Albany's manner and air, which had often
struck Montresor, but never so forcibly as now.

" Yes," he said, unconsciously speaking
aloud his thoughts, " you are my barrier !"*"

" Only," rejoined Isabella in the same under-
tone, " from guilt and misery."

The Countess was like one stunned by the
unexpected meeting with Adolphus, who had,
as she thought, quitted the Castle in the car-
riage she had seen drive off some hours before.
She buried her face in the withered moss, and
was awakened to the consciousness of existence
by the severity of the cold. She raised her
languid head, and, perceiving Isabella a few
yards from her, made a feeble effort to join her.
Again the figure of Montresor was before her.
'Is it a vision .?" she said, with the feeling of
uneasy doubt, with which we sometimes view
beings in a dream. The unsettled expression

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 159

of her countenance alarmed Montresor. He
hastily re-assured her ; and, grieved at her evi-
dent feebleness of mind and body, asked Miss
Albany if she had strength to reach her pony,
which could not be brought nearer on account
of the bushes. Agitation and cold seemed so
completely to have unnerved Lady Amesfort,
that Miss Albany could not be without appre-
hensions ; but her first wish was not to detain
Adolphus any longer, and she answered hastily,
" Quite well, presently." While she spoke,
however, Lady Amesfort's head sunk on her
shoulder, and Isabella could not conceal that
she had fainted. She had not power to sup-
port her, and Adolphus received in his arms
the senseless form of her he idolized.

" I beseech you,'' said Miss Albany earnestly,
" lay her on the bench, and leave us ;" but she
spoke to the winds. A long, labouring sigh
broke the spell of insensibility, and Lady
Amesfort moved her lips without the power
to speak.

" If you will untie the pony,'' said Adol-
phus, " I will place her upon it ; and if you

160 LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY.

can support her there, I promise to leave you
that moment."'

Isabella flew to the animal, and brought it
instantly as near as possible, anxious to shorten
this interview. Involuntarily Lady Amesfort
returned the pressure of the arms that sup-
ported her.

" O that this little spot of earth were our
world !" said Adolphus. '* Would it not be a
happy one, my love .?""

" Too happy !'' murmured the Countess, for-
cibly extricating herself from his embrace, and
looking round for Isabella.

" You cannot walk to her,"" said Adolphus,
following her thoughts, " but the sooner you
get out of this cold place the better.""* And she
suff*ered him to carry her through the tangled
entrance of the grotto and place her in silence
on her horse. Isabella impatiently threw her
arm round the Covmtess, and Montresor reluc-
tantly withdrew his. The sight of Miss Al-
bany seemed to recover Lady Amesfort. She
laid her almost powerless hand on the burning
brow of Adolphus, and said firmly, '' God bless

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. I6l

you, Montresor ! wherever you go : but remem-
ber, we must meet no more!"

" Never !"" cried Adolphus in a tone that
wrung even the heart of Isabella.

" Never !" solemnly repeated the Countess
with the strength of despair. Adolphus prompt-
ly made a sign of acquiescence ; for he saw the
Earl at a distance, and his immediate impulse
was to fly liim. Absorbed in the struggle of
his o^vTi wounded spirit. Lord Amesfort saw not
him, heard not the trampling of the horse's feet,
and, striking into another path, spared his
wretched vrife the meeting. Having once quit-
ted Lady Amesfort, Adolphus felt like one
goaded on by some evil spirit ; he fled with the
swiftness of lic^htnins; ; saw no obstacles in his
way ; sprung over new-made fences, scarcely
conscious of what was before him ; and stopped
not until, exhausted and breathless, he flung
himself into the carriage that had been so
long waiting for him. His journey was long
and dreary, uncheered by one sentiment of
gladness. He thought what his feelings had
been when he parted from his mother at the

16S LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

Castle-gate, and how different they would be
on their approaching reunion.

" Was her anguish, then,'' thought he, " a
presentiment of all her son was to suffer ? No ;
she could not foresee it : she could not dream
how far he would forget those high principles
she strove to instil into him." He surveyed
rapidly all the sentiments that had arisen in his
mind since their parting. He remembered
what Lord Amesfort had said of his wife, how
he had rejoiced in her happiness. "It is I
alone," murmured he, " who was to destroy it.
The Earl had said, ' I have not blasted the
morning of her life ;' but I have — I, who love
her so passionately, so exclusively ! it is I who
have withered this fair flower I would so ten-
derly have cherished !" Montresor was of a
temper to exhaust every torturing emotion
upon himself, for no sophistry could allay the
fever "of his remorse, no self-control abate the
violence of his passion. He had early given
the reins to his imagination, and his weakened
grasp could not now check them. The strong

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 163

line of duty once passed, phantoms arise at
every step, and assume its name.

She loved him ! and this love he thought a
tie more powerful than any that bound her to
her husband ! The struggle, too, between the
natural greatness of his mind, and that narrow
selfishness engendered by his new feelings, in-
volved him in a perpetual maze of contradic-
tion. An ordinary person, who has seldom
raised his eyes above his own concerns and
daily actions, if betrayed into error, does not,
at the moment, feel so much to be sinning
against himself. He may regret and amend;
but he cannot blush, as Adolphus did, at the
inconsistency that led him, in direct opposition
to those great principles he would have been
the first to lay down ; for it may be, he had
never heard of them, or hearing, had failed to
understand them. ^lontresor felt that he could
hardly make a comment, however simple, that
was not a sort of satire on himself : from this
acuteness of sensibility he revolted, and labour-
ed to justify himself in his own eyes. The

164} LORD amesfort's family.

eiFort was often successful, for of what is our
self-love not capable ? but the success was
momentary ; some obstinate association of feel-
ing with principle would rise up unexpectedly,
and the labour of hours was defeated : it was a
perpetual warfare of himself against himself,
where transient victory on either side brought
neither conviction nor repose.

His mother and sisters received him with de-
light, and, shocked at his own coldness, he
laboured to conceal it. How was the mighty
fallen, when Adolphus could stoop to dissimula-
tion ! His proud spirit writhed beneath the
unwonted restraint, and his eloquent counte-
nance but too fully told the inward misery that
preyed upon him. Emily did not dare look
at her mother, fearful of communicating her
thoughts ; but Mrs. Montresor, ever awake to
suffering, read without effort the hearts of her
children. The second day that Adolphus was
with them, she called Emily back, as she was
leaving the room. " Do not fly me,"" she said,
in her quiet manner, which looked so like in-
sensibility ; " sorrow of no kind comes on me

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 165

unexpectedly. I do not wonder at the change
in my son ; I do not require to be soothed into
bearing grief, I am bent to the yoke. Is it not
said, the sins of the fathers rest upon the chil-
dren ? I know that I shall live to see you all
wretched. I would rather have borne trials of
any other sort, — but we are not to choose our
punishments, — no other would have been hard
to bear, — it is just and righteous:"' and without
moving a muscle, or having once altered the
inflection of her voice, Mrs. Montresor calmly
pursued her work. Emily concealed the tears
she could not restrain, but she tried in vain to
reply .to her mother : she sought for words
of comfort, but they were not to be found : she
would have expressed a doubt of her brother's
unhappiness, but the fact was too evident : she
tried to say, she at least was free from care of
any kind, but the words died on her lips; —
could she say she looked back without regret,
and forward without anxiety ? she felt it to be
impossible ; and after framing and rejecting
many sentences on these topics, she was fol'ced
to give up the point, and quietly resign herself
to her usual silence.

166 LORD amesfort's family.

CHAPTER XIV.

" What are you reading so attentively,
Emily ?'''' said Montresor to his sister.

"Only this," she replied, sighing uncon-
sciously, as she placed a letter in his hands. It
was from Miss Albany, and Adolphus at once
feared and hoped there would be nothing in it
of Lady Amesfort. He read — " Indeed, my
dear Emily, I cannot deny your assertions ; I
am a bad correspondent, and have only the
excuse to offer of all bad correspondents, that
I have nothing to say. Every spot, you say,
on which my careless eye glances, is dear to
you, and you would hear of them. It must be,
then, from one who loves them too. I see the
snow sparkle on the hill, and melt in the val-
ley ; but nor hill nor valley awake in me one

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 167

thought of other times. I gaze over the bound-
less tract of country ; I think of him to whom
it all belongs ; and I smile at the insufficiency
of all worldly possessions ! I see daily new
faces, and where I meet >vith them I study new
characters ; but if I give you ever so faithful a
picture of them, you might meet the originals
and not know them. We neither judge nor
feel alike ; and how we come to care for one
another, I don't very well know ; but that, at
least as far as concerns myself, is a fact which
I cannot permit of your doubting. 'Doubt
that the stars, &c.' you don't want all Hamlet's
speech, which means only, what in less sublime
words we all of us say for ever, ' there is
nothing, however great or good, that you may
not disbelieve' — I only, who am possibly neither
great nor good, will not be content with any-
thing short of boundless confidence ! Oh, egot-
ism ! how it strikes to the very root of things,
and clings to the heart's core ! how it can
assume every grace, and palsy every virtue ! —
I once heard a celebrated Lady in her day (the
biographer of Johnson) assert, that egotism was

168 LORD amesfort's family.

the foundation of insanity ; for, observe the mad-
man, would she say— he does not fancy you or
I are emperors of the world, it is to himself his
whims point — ' I am Socrates ; I am a glass-
bottle f no matter what the idea, it invariably
turns on self. Since he has lost the faculty of
judging of others, I don't very well know on
what else it cQuld turn, but it was a whimsical
sentiment that amused me at the time.

" You ask me about my employments. I
hope my time is spent well, for I have little
power over it, and cannot boast of deriving
much profit or pleasure from it. This family
are willing to have the resource of society, and
their house, when in the country, is always full :
they will, however, have only as much as suits
them. The Earl is soon satisfied on that
head ; and indeed, when he does join the com-
pany, his taciturnity and depression do not
make his dear friends regret the little they
see of him. When the Countess is well and
in spirits, she mixes more ; but for the greater
part of the day the Castle is more like an inn,
where you do not pay your bill, than a society

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 169

convened to give pleasure to the Amesforts,
who are generally the people least thought of
or attended to in their hfise.

" Lord De Calmer has hitherto been always
with them, when in the country, and his wit
and cheerfulness enlivened others, while his
presence seemed to give a sanction to their
plans for amusing themselves. To this vacant
post of half-doing the honours, I have suc-
ceeded ; and a wearisome one I find it. Just
fancy me, who have hitherto sat quietly at
my work listening to what others said, or to
what I myself was dreaming about, and hardly
opening my lips from morning to night—- only
suppose me, making to every one some interest-
ing observation about tilings supremely indif-
ferent to every soul present, and after cramming
every one with food, arranging with them where
they should drive, what carriages they would
have, or if the weather was too severe, how they
could possibly contrive to employ themselves
within doors — then furnishing them with some
topic of present conversation for immediate use,
making my best courtesy and retiring.

VOL. L I

170 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

" This dull farce recurs every day ; and then
I walk with Lady Amesfort, read to her, or
sometimes persuade her to have a little music
in her own room. Her health is not very
good, her spirits stiU less so, but she is better
than she has been, and care and time will, I
hope, remove the languor that weighs down
this lovely creature. Perhaps you hear of her
from others, and doubtless she is spoken of as a
fair enchantress, whose briUiant smile lightens
through the room as she enters. Alas ! I am
behind the scenes ; and the vivid bloom of art,
the gaudy attire of wasteful opulence, shine on
me but cannot dazzle me. It is melancholy to
Hve ; for what has life to offer but a nearer view
of sorrow, a better acquaintance with misery I
Yet it is not unprofitable. We learn, what we
should never learn from our own reflections,
— the equity of Providence : we see with what
an even hand misfortune presses on every one ;
we acknowledge our own presumption in judg-
ing of any person or any situation ; we feel the
insufficiency of all that appears most desirable
to confer even transient happiness; and we

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 171

leaiTi to desire nothing passionately, to distrust
ourselves, to confess the inadequacy of what we
most longed for to yield the enjoyment we had
expected from it. AU this must sound to you
like very dull prosing ; and yet, if we could
but enter on life with these feelings, instead of
acquiring them by slow and painful experience,
what regret, what self-reproof we should be
spared ! It is idle to wish for what is hardly
possible : on the fresh feelings of youth every
impression is sharp and vivid ; like glowing
colours on the canvass they start into life, and
the heavy hand of time alone can first mellow,
and then utterly obliterate them : — surely the
consciousness of this inevitable decay ought
to quiet us at first ! surely the thought of
the future should, with rational beings, have
some influence on the present !

" You may thank little Henry for being
spared any more preaching ; he is hiding my
pens, spilhng my ink, pulling down my hair,
and exerting himself to the best of his abihties,
to divert my attention from what I am about,
and to fix it upon himself. I wish you could
I 2

172 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

see him, for you are fond of children, and I,
wl^o am not, cannot help delighting in him.
The lower part of his face is like his beautiful
mother ; and, what is more singular, he has
your brother''s brow; you may believe I do
not admire him the less on that account.
Lord De Calmer first saw the likeness, and
pointed it out to I^ady Amesfort, who did not
seem inclined to acknowledge it, and yet they
are both so handsome, there is no reason why
they should not be compared to one another.
I conclude, by what you say in your last, Adol-
phus will be now in town. I am glad of it,
as it was with reluctance I heard of his re-
maining so long idle. Indolence is the sure
nurse of selfishness, and I should grieve to see
your brother's noble character sink to a level
with all the idle young men I am acquainted
with. I do not think I shall see him in to^vn,
for I rather fancy, in spring, I shall return
to my mother, who, as I expected, thinks
this an endless winter. Lord Amesfort talks
of visiting some property he has in Scotland,
and it is not unlikely his wife may accompany

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 173

him: at any rate, I do not suppose either
of thein will return here for some time, and
the Castle will once more be shut up, and
excite only the admiration of chance-travellers.
It has become almost proverbial, that noble-
men never inhabit their finest houses. Adieu,
my dear Emily ; I have punished you suf-
ficiently for having found fault with my
silence.

" Your affectionate

"" Isabella Albany.''

Adolphus slowly folded up the letter, and
returned it to his sister. He waited for some
comment from her, but he waited in vain. At
last he said, with an effort at indifference- —
" Isabella is right ; I do no good here. — Don't
you think so ?'' he added, after a pause.

Emily raised her long eyelashes with an ex-
pression of sadness and timidity. " Isabella,
I have no doubt, is always right ; for she never
says any thing by chance, or without seriously
meaning it ; but I, who do not pretend to her
judgment and discrimination, can give no opi-

174 LORD amesfort's family.

nion about others whose feelings I do not un-
derstand.*"

" My sister ! do you too reproach me .?'"
" God forbid !" eagerly replied Emily. " I
am sure that you are right ; quite as sure as I
could be of Miss Albany being so. I do not
wish to intrude on your confidence. I do not
even wonder at its being withheld, for I am
aware I could do no good. I merely cannot
form any opinion or judgment upon a subject
veiled from me. But, after all, you want no
such feeble guide; your character, I thank
Heaven, is no wavering uncertain thing, yield-
ing to every outward impression. You stand
in need of no persuasions of friends, even of
friends as highly gifted as Isabella Albany, to
induce you to act judiciously. From your
earliest infancy you have been consistent, be-
cause you have never swerved from those prin-
ciples which are strength to the feeble and
comfort to the wretched. And do I suspect
my brother of change .f^"

" Alas !" said Montresor sadly, " I am
changed. I mourn my degradation more bit-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 175

terly than you can do, for I have not the power
to shake it off."

Emily's meek countenance became animated
by sudden emotion. " Do I," she cried, " live
to hear Adolphus say, there is something noble
and excellent which he will not even strive for ?
somethino^ rio^ht to be attained, from which he
shrinks, because it is difficult ? Had any one
else said this of my brother, with what scornful
compassion I should have listened to one who
knew him so little !"

'' True," said Montresor ; "it was once my
creed that the most arduous enterprise had the
most charms. I had till now met with only
difficulty enough, in well doing, to give a spur
to exertion and a zest to life. In the evil pride
of my heart I said, nothing is beyond my
strength. I am punished."

Emily's heart bled at her brother's tone of
anguish. She longed to throw herself into his
arms and weep over sufferings she could not
heal ; but she felt this was not the moment to
enervate him by emotion ; and in a tremulous
accent she said, " None of us are exempt from

176 LORD amesfort's family.

the general lot ; we must all suffer ; we must
all be tried. We have no strength of our own
in really great occasions ; for how, unaided and
unassisted, should we sacrifice that half of our-
selves which feels most, to the other half.? If
any one says, I have always sacrificed feeling to
principle, and I always shall, he has either no
feeling, and then his stoicism, not his strength,
saves him, or he is blinded by presumption
and vanity. We can do nothing good of our-
selves; but we know the source of all good,
and we know that in proportion to the faith
with which we seek it, we shall receive it."

" Oh ! if it were only faith !" cried Adol-
phus, with a spark of his former enthusiasm
lighting up his beautiful features ; " if to be-
lieve in the Equity as well as the Omnipotence
that watches over us, to admire what is great
and adore what is good, were enough ; then
should I not be what I am ; then should I not
cling, desperately cling to the evil I condemn.
Why do you weep, Emily ? I do not weep."

" Then have you the more need of my tears,
my brother !" And Adolphus, ever unable to

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 177

resist the tone of tenderness, kissed her pallid
cheek, and entreated her not to make their mo-
ther miserable by indulging useless grief. Isa-
bella's advice was speedily followed, and INIon-
tresor went to town. It was not, however, be-
cause she gave it, that Adolphus felt inclined to
adopt it ; it was because the anxious look of
his sister was a reproach his irritated feelings
could not brook ; it was because he felt he had
sunk in her esteem. Her commiseration was
so tender and unobtrusive, he could not be
offended, yet was he hurt at the idea of being
an object of compassion to one who had hither-
to looked up to him with enthusiastic admira-
tion. The triumphant affection which used to
shine in Emily's eyes, now gave place to pain-
ful soUcitude, and the proud heart of her bro-
ther writhed beneath the change.

" There was a time," thought Montresor, as
he released his heart-broken parent from his
farewell embrace, " there was a time, when my
inmost spirit could have mourned over thee,
my angel mother; now I behold thy tears un-
moved ! The pain of others does not come
I 5

178 LORD amesfort's family.

near me — the innocent affections of my youth
are palsied — the sympathy of my nature is fro-
zen. The cold grasp of guilt has withered every
righteous and kindly feeling within me. Such
are thy fruits, wayward passion ! so dost thou
enervate the mind, and harden the heart that
yields to thee !

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 179

CHAPTER XV.

Adolphus did not reach London so soon as
he had expected. At the last stage he fell in
with a young man with whom he had studied
abroad. He was the son of a German, who had
married an EngHsh lady, but she did not long
survive their union. The young man inherited
his father's admiration for English women, and
was at that moment paying his addresses to
one. She lived near, and he importuned his
friend to accompany him to her father's house.
Montresor had little inclination to comply ;
but, if possible, less to pursue his journey to
town : — he went. As they drove up to the door,
he asked Gustavus whether he meant to give up
his country and settle in England.

" That," replied the young lover, " my fa-

180 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

ther would not hear of, and therefore, I must
needs take Eleanor abroad.'"

" Then you would not have done so, other-
wise ?"" asked Montresor, smilingly ; — " you
must be very much in love."

" Why so ?" replied Gustavus, " La patrie
est aux lieux oit Tame est enchainee ; I cannot
rave about the shape of a hill as you do ; nor
do I feel it incumbent upon me to prefer Ger-
many, of which I know little, to England, of
which I know much."

Montresor was not inclined to preach nation-
ality at this moment, he therefore asked if they
were likely to find any company at Sir John
Barclay's.

" Plenty," answered his friend ; "it shows
you have never met Lady Barclay, or you
would not suspect she could live alone."

" Alone with six daughters !" cried Adol-
phus ; " she could hardly feel very solitary in
so large a family."

" Don't throw people's misfortunes in their
face, Montresor; her Ladyship would be too
happy to diminish her home society. I dare

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 181

say you are welcome to any one of Eleanor's
sisters ; out of five you may be suited, if you
are not very difficult/'

" Gustavus, how can you speak so slight-
ingly of a family you are connecting yourself
with ?"

" Zounds, man ! must I be in love with the
whole family ? I really have not so capacious a
heart/' — And the young foreigner leaped out of
the carriage, and preceded his friend up a mag-
nificent staircase, through a suite of rooms, at
the end of which they were greeted by a showy-
looking woman, and courteously addressed by a
respectable old man, who rose from his cards to
receive them. Gustavus asked after the girls,
and Montresor, who thought nothing older
than his sister had any right to that appella-
tion, was a good deal surprised when Lady
Barclay introduced him to her six daughters,
the youngest of whom, Eleanor, was some years
his senior. They were all working, and the
mother observed with a smile of complacency,
that she brought up her children to be no-
table.

182 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

Adolphus, in the simplicity of his heart, ask-
ed himself, what it could possibly be to him
whether the Miss Barclays sewed upon muslin
or not ? Happening to look up, he caught the
eye of Gustavus, full of such comic expression,
that his solemnity relaxed to half a smile, as he
took a chair by Eleanor, and asked what work
she preferred. " There is none I prefer to do-
ing nothing," said the young lady, laughing ;
" but my sisters really do like, and understand
it." A frown from Miss Barclay petrified
Montresor, though Eleanor, for whom it was
meant, heeded it not. A handsome woman op-
posite, with a good-humoured air, exclaimed,
" You are very saucy to recommend your elder
sisters ; and perhaps, after all, Mr. Montresor
does not like work, so you may have wasted
your labour."

" Caroline !" cried Miss Barclay reproach-
fully ; but on Caroline the accent of reproof
seemed to make as little impression as the look
nad done on Eleanor. Adolphus was amused
at the unsuccessful efforts of the lady to restrain
her sisters : he examined the pale face which,

LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY. 183

bent low over her tambour-frame, seemed really
willing to avoid the gaze of strangers, and its
expression of weariness interested him. " Her
merry, thoughtless sisters," said Adolphus to
himself, " think her cross ; perhaps she is only
unhappy.'"*

A letter was brought to Miss Barclay : she
glanced her eye carelessly over it, and, as she
put it in her pocket, said with an unaltered
countenance, " ^liss Albany desires to be re-
membered to you, Caroline."

" Isabella Albany !" cried her lively sister.
" Is it possible .f' I never flattered myself with
the idea of being remembered by her."

" I should not have thought Miss Albany
a likely person to forget her friends," said
Adolphus.

" May be not," replied Caroline ; " but a
very likely one to forget her acquaintance ; and
certainly it was equally beyond my hopes and
my ambition to have retained a place in the
memory of such a blue-stocking lady."

" Pardon my ignorance," said Montresor ;
" and have the goodness to explain to me that

184 LORD amesfort's family.

term of reproach. I have not been long in Eng-
land, and have only heard it casually named,
without being able to affix to it any precise
meaning."

" I did not mean any reproach by it,'" an-
swered Caroline ; " but I believe a blue-stock-
ing lady is a very wise person, who knows all
sorts of languages, talks about all new books,
and hates and contemns cards."

*' At that rate," said Montresor, " how few
blue ladies there must be in the world ! for I
do not know many who do not play at cards,
and not one who knows all sorts of languages ;
certainly not Isabella, with whom I have been
for weeks under the same roof, and never heard
her speak, or saw her read, any language but
her own."

" I know she understands German^" said
Eleanor, "for I once saw a German book with
her name in it."

" I don't know," said Adolphus, " that such
proof is sufficient to convict her ; but grant-
ing her guilty of German, that is but one
language."

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 185

'• And then," cried Fanny Barclay, who had
hitherto been silent, " there is French and Ita-
lian, that every body knows ; and I am sure
I have heard, ^Ir. Albany took great pains with
his daughter ; and as she had not the beauty
of her sisters to recommend her, he taught her
Latin and Greek.''

" He seems to have hit on exactly the right
way,'' said Gustavus slyly ; " but, I assure you,
many people admire ^liss Albany since the
death of her sisters."'

"It must be people of no taste," said Fanny
spitefully ; and all the young ladies wathin hear-
ing joined all the ^liss Barclays in expressions
of surprise at any one admiring Miss A.

The Miss Barclays were all pretty, and not
any of them ill-natured; but they were mor-
tified to find the handsome stranger interested
for a girl they thought plain, because they had
conceived a prejudice against her. One of them
appealed to Lady Barclay, who passed near
them, with, " Only tliink. Mamma, of any one
finding out beauty in Isabella Albany, of all
people under the sun !"

186 LORD amesfort's family.

" Fortunately for the variety there is in the
world," replied her Ladyship with her wonted
smile of graciousness, " there is a variety of
tastes also. I am sure we have reason to like
and admire Miss Albany, though, perhaps, not
just for her beauty ; for nothing could be
kinder than she was about Henry."

" Miss Albany, you know. Ma'am," said
Fanny, " told us Lord Amesfort gave that place
to my brother of his own accord." But Lady
Barclay having made a proper display of gra-
titude, was already in the other room.

" What a child you are," observed Miss
Barclay sarcastically, " to have so much faith
in spontaneous kindness ! What reason have
we to believe that Lord Amesfort would care if
Henry was at the bottom of the Red Sea .?"

" Oh ! my sweet Miss Barclay," cried a little
fair girl with the prettiest lisp in the world, " I
will not suiFer you to say such savage things.
I am sure I have always found every body very
kind and good to me, so that I have a right to
believe it is human nature."

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 187

" I should wonder," said the immovable
Miss Barclay, " if Lady Sophia ever found
any people otherwise than kind ; for I do not
very well see how she should ever want any
thing from others."

" Fie, sister !" said a young naval officer, on
whose arm Lady Sophia hung ; " what an un-
fair thing to call all kindness interested."

Miss Barclay remained silent ; but she
raised her head, and gave her brother a look,
which seemed to say, " Beware that her kind-
ness prove not so."

An impatient gesture in the young man
showed that he understood her, and despised
her warning ; wliile liady Sophia continued her
flirtation with so many pretty airs and graces,
that Adolphus, who had a horror of affectation,
was lost in wonder at its proving an attraction
to young Barclay. A waltz was played in the
adjoining room. " Will not any one dance ?"
cried a middle-aged man with a strong Cale-
donian accent.

" Any one is no one," said young Barclay ;

188

" but take out your partner, and we 11 do our
best to plague the card-players. Shall we not,
Lady Sophia?''

" Oh, it is so hot in there !" said the young
lady, drawing back ; " and dancing on a carpet
is so fatiguing."

" And when you are fatigued, you shall rest;
so come away, come away !" And Barclay
playfully drew her on by the ends of her long
scarf.

" Since you are not wedded to that eternal
netting of yours," said Gustavus to Eleanor,
" suppose you come and dance."

Eleanor bounded from her chair, on which
she had sat yawning, or looking ready to yawn,
for some time, and pushed her netting-box over
the table, regardless of all things it came in
contact with.

" Oh, Eleanor !" cried Fanny, '' you have
overturned all my work." But Eleanor was far
away, and Fanny was obliged to repair the
mischief unassisted by her sisters.

" What an odd family !" thought Montresor ;
" not one of them seems to care for the other."

LORD AMESFORrS FAMILY. 189

The room in which lie was, gradually thinned
— every one went to dance, or to gaze on the
dancers. Adolphus was nearest to Caroline,
and she was also the handsomest woman in the
room ; but he thought her eldest sister was
neglected, and then she was Miss Albany^s
correspondent : — he asked her. ^liss Barclay
looked up, and a faint colouring, produced by
surprise, showed she had once been handsomer
than her sisters. She declined dancing, but
added, " Caroline will be happy to take my
place, — she is more used to waltzing.''

Adolphus had no resource, and he danced
with Caroline, He found her pleasing and un-
affected ; but when the dance was over, and he
led her back to the cooler apartment they had
quitted, he was struck afresh with the deserted
situation of ^liss Barclay. She had not stirred
from her seat, or, to judge by the diligence
with which her fingers moved, taken her mind
once from her frame. Traces of various em-
ployments littered the room ; the chairs seemed
as if they too had been dancing ; the candles
gave a dull light for want of being snuffed ; the

190 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

fire was almost out ; every thing looked aban-
doned, and in this comfortless confusion Miss
Barclay worked on in the self-same attitude,
and with the precise degree of interest that
had apparently inspired her an hour before.
Adolphus was sorry for her. " Do you not even
honour dancing so far as to look at it ?"" said he.

" I have seen a great deal of dancing in my
life,**"" she answered.

" Is there pleasure only in what we have
rarely seen ?"

Miss Barclay looked at him attentively, and
her countenance seemed to say, " You are a
strange person to trouble yourself about what
others think and feel.'' The expression was
evanescent, and in her usual correct and deco-
rous manner, she answered, " Dancing is more
liked the first year of one's coming out than
any other, I believe ; but it is a very pleasant
break in society, and I am always glad to see
it promoted."

" This woman," thought Montresor, " takes
shelter in a certain routine of phrases and re-
ceived opinions, and there 's no driving her out of

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 191

them." Presently he made another attempt :
'* I shall probably see Miss Albany shortly —
*'I should be very happy if it was in my power
to take any thing, or bear any message from
you to her/'*

'^ Do you then know much of Miss Albany?^*
asked Miss Barclay.

" I do,"' replied Montresor, " know her very
well, and she is my sister's intimate friend ; in-
deed, the only intimate friend she has.''

" Your sister is a fortunate young woman to
have such a friend,'' said Miss Barclay, — then
she paused ; but it was evidently like some one
who wished to say more. She cast a hasty
cautious glance around her, and perceiving no
one near them, she asked in a low tremulous ac-
cent whether Mr. Montresor had any friends or
relations for whom he was interested in Spain,
and whether he had lately heard from thence.

" I have heard," replied Adolphus, " but
not very lately ; Miss Albany is likely to know
better than I."

"This letter," said Miss Barcla}^, taking
her's out of her pocket, " announces a misfor-

192 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

tune which Miss Albany in vain endeavours to
soften. My eldest brother is wounded, and as
we should to-morrow read the whole account of
it, she was kind enough to assure me his wounds
are not thought dangerous. As you know Miss
Albany well, and I do not, you might be able
to say how far her authority may be relied
upon .^*"

Adolphus hastened to impart to the anxious
sister his own conviction of Isabella's accuracy
in all her statements ; but not having the habit of
self-control, he could not conceal how solicitous
he was to know farther particulars of the action
to which Miss Albany alluded. He rightly
conjectured Isabella had her intelligence from
the Amesforts, whose anxiety for Lord De
Calmer was great. He was eager to set off for
town that instant, in the hope of obtaining there
some news of his friend ; but he could not leave
the house he had just entered so abruptly,
without assigning the real reason, and it was
evident Miss B. was most desirous to conceal
from her family the calamity with which they
were threatened.

'^

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 193

He danced till a very late hour, for he dread-
ed the sohtude of his own room, and was do^vn
at breakfast the earliest, intending to set off as
soon afterwards as he decently could. The
joyous tone of Eleanor's voice struck a pang to
his heart, feeling as he did how quickly her
gaiety would be dispelled. When Miss Bar-
clay appeared, Montresor wondered to hear the
same tranquil tone, to see the same air of placid
coldness he had remarked when first he was
introduced to her. She addressed every one
present ; she did not forget one of those enqui-
ries of courtesy custom has prescribed ; she
even smiled, if that expression could be called a
smile, which, like a ray of wintry sun glittering
feebly on icicles, neither expressed nor inspired
cheerfulness. When her eye fell on Adolphus,
her features underwent a slight change; her
cheek grew paler, and, unable to speak to him
as she had done to others, she bowed slightly,
and turned to the breakfast-table.

" This is not insensibility,"" thought Montre-
sor;— " but what then is it ? Could I look so,
with such a weight on my mind.'^ Are we

VOL. I. K

194 LORD amesfort's family.

selfish in our very feeling, and do we clamor-
ously demand sympathy for every sorrow that
assails us? and are women, on the contrary,
early taught to repress every sensation, and
teach every misery to recoil upon the heart that
gave it birth ?^'

Adolphus pondered not long on the ques-
tions he had asked himself, for his heart was
with his friend; and his painful anxiety render-
ed him unequal to join in any conversation, or
make other than absent replies to the few words
addressed to him. He did not, however, lose
a half-whispered observation of Eleanor's, —
" Your friend ought always to show himself
the day after a dance, to cure the heart-aches
he may have given over-night : — that is, if he is
always as spiritless in the morning as now."'

Gustavus smiled — " Caroline should have
addressed that reproach to him, I think, as she
was his partner."

Caroline felt and looked provoked ; and her
sister, according to the sisterly fashion of the
family, enjoyed her confusion. At last, this
wearisome breakfast, which Adolphus had so

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 195

often thought endless, drew to a conclusion;
and eagerly availing himself of the first motion,
he arose, and, uttering a hasty farewell to Lady
Barclay, moved towards the door. He was
met by the servant with letters and papers.
Miss Barclay, who had been for years in the
habit of reading the latter to her father, held
out her hand to receive them ; but some of the
party unfortunately were keen about a boxing-
match, and, that they might ascertain in whose
favour it was decided, they eagerly tore open
their respective papers. IMiss Barclay cast an
imploring look at Montresor, which arrested
him instantly. As she expected, the capital let-
ters, " Victory at Almaraz, May 19th," caught
the eye of the first person who opened the pa-
per, and instantly the news was proclaimed.
There was a sudden and awful silence. Not a
single Barclay had the courage to ask after the
person they were all thinking of. At last, the
old father said, with effort, " Let me know the
worst."

Lady Barclay fixed her eyes on her eldest
daughter, ghastly through her rouge, and shi-
K 2

196 LORD amesfort's family.

vering with repressed emotion. Miss Barclay
had opened the paper, that she might gain time
to arrange her words. Though prepared to see
her brother^s name in the list of those mortally
wounded, she yet shuddered as her eye glanced
over it. Sir John, who watched her, started
up, exclaiming vehemently, " I will know all !"
And she proceeded to state what she had heard
from Miss Albany, which was so much more
consolatory than the newspaper intelligence.
Augusta Barclay ran out of the room, Eleanor
fainted, and Caroline approached her mother,
to repeat to her the assurances of her son's
safety- Lady Barclay sat like one bewildered.
She gazed alternately at those near her, with-
out seeming to understand what they were
speaking about. At last, pushing away some
of her weeping daughters, she called aloud for
Mary. Miss Barclay quitted her father's hand,
and came round to her mother, who, grasping
her firmly, said in a low, quick tone, " It is you
I want. You I can rely upon. Will my son
live r

" Yes, I trust so, — I believe so,'' she replied

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 197

steadily ; and Lady Barclay, clasping her hands,
whilst a sudden flash of exultation crossed her
convulsed features, sunk back in her chair in
strong hysterics. All who, from sympathy or
curiosity, had hitherto remained in the apart-
ment, now, by common consent, abandoned it,
none remaining vnth Lady Barclay but her
maid and her eldest daughter. Sir John took
the arm of Adolphus, who had come forward to
vouch for the authenticity of Isabella's state-
m.ent, and dismissed him at the door of his li-
brary, with a silent pressure of the hand, which
acknowledged the young man's sympathy, and
thanked him for it. Montresor, who had al-
ready been delayed so long, had no time to seek
Gustavus ; but, getting into his carriage, made
the best of his way to to^vn.

198 LORD amesfort's family.

CHAPTER XVI.

It was late before Adolphus reached Lon-
don: he however called instantly upon every
one he thought likely to know any thing of his
friend ; but he was unfortunate in gaining no
intelligence. At last, by an evening paper, he
found De Calmer was a prisoner. He would
have flown to Lord Amesforfs ; but there, alas !
was one he dared not meet. He wrote to Isa-
bella. Her answer was cheerless. She thought
he might be wounded ; it was certain he was
taken; and thus his promotion, his ambitious
hopes of fame, his return to his own country —
all became dubious. Miss Albany's despondency
roused the dormant energy of Montresor. He
wrote her a long letter in this sanguine spirit,
contriving to make every circumstance assume

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 199

a favourable appearance. He sealed his letter,
and thought himself convinced ; but when again
he took up his pen, and began " My dearest
Emily," the tide of his feehngs changed : he
shook out the ink on the carpet ; he waited till
the tear had dropped and left his vision clear ;
still he had nothing to say to her — no comfort
that she would receive. " My poor sister !'"*
thought he ; " if I was with her, I should only
be a restraint on her grief; she would not weep
for De Calmer before me.'" He wrote, however ;
and the next post brought Emily's answer.
Her words were weighed ; her sentiments some-
what calmer than those her little sister might
have uttered ; but the scarcely legible hand-
writing betrayed the sufferings that womanly
deHcacy and womanly pride laboured to conceal.
Isabella ^Tote not to her as she had done to
Adolphus. She sought to soothe Emily, and
stimulate her brother. She succeeded ; for new-
bom hope sprung up in the breast of Miss Mon-
tresor ; whilst Adolphus strained every nerve to
get abroad, in the hope of being useful to his
friend. His exertions, however, were speedily

wo LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

checked by a most welcome epistle from De
Calmer. He had been released on parole ; and
as his wound, though slight, required care, he
resigned himself with a good grace to the con-
dition of not serving, for a given period, against
his captors. He was moving homeward, as
suited best with his varying health ; and Mon-
tresor, in the joy of his return, almost forgot
how effectually his career of glory was stopped.
Besides, he felt the better for the attention he
had given latterly to all that might interest De
Calmer. Aware that his mind had by this cir-
cumstance been much weaned from what before
ingrossed it, he determined not to suffer it to
revert to its former state, if possible.

His good resolutions were put to the test
some days after they were formed ; for, walking
through a narrow street, his progress was im-
peded by a concourse of carriages. Some acci-
dent having happened to one, the others stop-
ped. Montresor looked up mechanically ; all
his blood seemed rushing through his temples
and singing in his ears, for it was the Amesfort
carriage he almost touched ! — it was her eye he

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 201

met ! She drove on, but he remained rooted
to the spot. " Surely," thought he, as gradually
he recovered himself, " she might have spoken
to me in the public street ; she might have
bowed, — ^have looked as if she was not sorry to
see me ; but she shrunk back as though she had
set her foot upon a serpent !" He walked on
musingly : he fancied she was altered ; he
longed to know if she were ill or unhappy — but
whom should he ask ? He longed to hear the
sound of her voice, but he did not wish it
addressed to himself, — he did not wish her to
see him. He turned over in his mind a thou-
sand plans for effecting his purpose. He per-
suaded himself, nothing could be more inno-
cent, since he wished to be unnoticed. He felt
anxious and restless, and he assured himself he
could settle to nothing, think of nothing, until
he had ascertained that she looked and spoke
as she was wont to do.

It was easy to see Lady Amesfort, for she

went every where; yet Adolphus returned

home, nevertheless, from many a fashionable

assembly, night after night, wearied and disap-

K 5

LORD AMESFORT S FAMILY.

pointed, for he had not seen her. At last, at a
gala given by one of the foreign ambassadors,
radiant in beauty, and blazing in more than
Eastern magnificence, appeared the young
Countess. He drew back to gaze unobserved ;
but it was long before he remembered why he
had so much wished it. For some time he
could feel and repeat to himself only — " It is
she I I see her once more, as through a troubled
dream." She passed on, and he had marked
only her transcendent loveliness, her matchless
grace ! He followed cautiously, and almost
started as the voice reached him, for which he
listened. The tones were clear and musical,
but yet to her lover^s ear they had not the
sound he used to admire ; they were joyless,
soul-less, — they were not like hers. She
coughed, and Montresor beheld with agony her
cheek flush and fade in quick succession.

He went home with the conviction she was
dying. He wrote to Isabella, to reproach her
for having concealed from him what was of
such paramount importance for him to know.
He gave himself up to the regret of having for

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 203

one moment suffered his mind to wander from
his fair victim. He stretched his powerful
imagination to the uttermost for new causes of
disquiet. He hated himself, and every human
being — Isabella worst of all ; every one but her,
who to his fancy was blooming over her grave.
He tore open Miss Albany's answer, almost ex-
pecting her to say Lady Amesfort's days are
numbered. It was in a very different strain,
merely containing these words : —

" I know of no complaint Lady Amesfort
has, or any chance of her dying directly. If
you do not grow somewhat more reasonable,
however, you may have the satisfaction of cre-
ating the illness you now dream about. Why
do you follow her steps ? Do you not see the
pain you must give her ? Do you not feel the
effect it may have on her husband ? I could
not have suspected you of such selfish impru-
dence. I. A.''

Montresor felt the tone in which Miss Albany
would have spoken these few words, — the look

204 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

with which she would have turned from him ;
and the influence of her commanding character
returned upon him with redoubled force. I
am too near the brink of danger here, thought
he ; the slightest accident would impel me into
a vortex, from which I might not perhaps
escape till the final wreck of her happiness and
mine. Mine ! he half repeated aloud — and he
smiled in bitterness, for where was his ? — He
accepted the invitation of Gustavus to be present
at his marriage, which good accounts of young
Barclay allowed them to fix without more delay.
A gay nuptial was not just what he was most
fit for ; but still it was an object, something to
do, something besides self to think of. The
affliction in which he had left the Barclay fami-
ly was a claim on the kindliness of his nature.
That affliction was giving way indeed to mirth
and festivity, but still they had once interested
him, and he felt a desire to know them better than
he did his other acquaintance. He went, and was
amused. There was something in the happiness
of his friend that formed a keen contrast to his
own state of mind. Over the love of Adolphus,

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 205

all the enthusiasm of his nature, — all his shud-
dering horror of its guilt, combined to cast a
deep shade of wild gloominess. The playful
satisfaction of Gustavus, his perfect security,
rendered his love a sort of blameless halcyon,
that, but for his frolicksome temper, might have
proved insipid, even to himself, and still more
so to an indifferent person.

Eleanor looked very handsome and very
happy. Her mother gazed on her with satis-
faction, and inwardly prayed her marriage
might bring luck to her sisters. Those sisters
by no means appeared disposed to resent the
wish, had it been audibly expressed, — excepting
the eldest, who alone, of all the company, ap-
peared to be entirely taken up with Eleanor, to
the exclusion of every private individual feel-
ing. Her simplicity and quietude pleased
Adolphus. He felt he might converse with
her, without her fancying he would make love
to her ; and he would therefore sit by her for
hours, as she industriously plied her eternal
needle.

" There must be some hidden charm,'' he

206 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

observed to her one morning, " in that frame of
yours, for you cannot keep your fingers off it
for half a minute."

" Why should I, when I can talk and listen
as well working .?"

" Not quite so well, I think ; — and then,
such indefatigable employment is such a satire
on idle people : it quite fidgets me.'"*

" I am sorry for that," said Miss Barclay,
smiling good-humouredly ; " and I promise to
give my fingers a holiday, if you will start some
very interesting topic ; but, to confess the ho-
nest truth, I have not spirits to be idle ; and
this mechanical motion that torments you, is a
sort of shelter to me, and saves me sometimes
from feeling too painfully the vacuum of my
own mind."

" I will not," said Montresor, " ask, if, like
opium to the suffering patient, its torpor does
not add to the original disease ; because I have
lately learned not to preach to others, from find-
ing how unequal I am, in my own case, to do
any one of the things I would so strenuously
recommend to them. I can however furnish

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 207

you with a topic very interesting to me, if not
to you : — tell me all you know of Isabella Al-
bany. My sister says, there has been a great
change in her mother's circumstances, and I
should like to hear all you know on the
subject/'

" That you shall do directly, if you will
come out into the plantation ; for it is annoying
to hear Isabella Albany discussed by all these
giddy people."

Montresor was quite of her opinion, and, be-
sides, thought it a sort of triumph to get Miss
Barclay from her work. After a few moments'
silence on both sides, his companion began :
" \ ou have seen Mrs. Albany, and, I need not
tell you, her disposition has nothing in it to
attract, or to repel. Well-born and well-edu-
cated, she retains the polished manners of her
youth, which many who have lived so long out
of the world, lose as entirely as if they had
never possessed them. She has been less for-
tunate in her beauty : in my memory, she could
boast of considerable remains, and they have
yielded less to the hand of Time, than to the

208 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

pressure of grief. She brought Mr. Albany a
fine fortune; and, as he had very good prefer-
ment in the Church, they lived handsomely.
They had four children — a boy, who was his
mother's darling, and certainly was a very fine
creature, and three girls : the two eldest were
twins, and almost painfully alike ; yet no one
could deny their admiration to such faultless
forms. They were good-humoured, accom-
plished — very like most young ladies — and
what we are agreed to call amiable, because
they were very pleasing to look at, and quite
harmless. That Isabella should be their sister,
would be surprising, if we forgot to take into
the account the difference of their education.
She was many years younger than Anne and
Sophy : her mother longed for a boy, — and
before she could reasonably be expected to
recover from the disappointment of having a
girl, it was discovered that the little Isabella
was a plain girl !

" There was no recovering two such shocks
so near together ; and Mrs. Albany kept the
child in the nursery, and might have forgotten

LORD AMESFORTS FAMILY. 209

its existence, had it not formed so prominent a
part in the conversation of her son. Frank
Albany was a wild schoolboy at that time, but
full of affection towards every living thing.
He often murmured at not getting leave to turn
his deHcate sisters into romps, and make them
climb the trees with him in search of birds'-
nests. The baby was a plaything no one inter-
fered ^vith him about. He had it all his own
way, — made the nurses dress it after his fancy,
lugged the poor infant about everywhere, and,
as she grew older, took the entire management
of her upon himself.

" Meanwhile, the elder sisters grew into
girls, and very handsome ones. Without being
clever, they were expert at most things they
wished to do. Mrs. Albany spared neither
pains nor expense for their improvement ; and
her husband at last hinted, it would be as well
if Frank's child, as they called Isabella, par-
took of the same advantages. Mrs. Albany
agreed to this observation, as she would have
done to any other uttered by her husband, but
forgot to take any steps in consequence. Mr.

^G LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILV.

Albany was a learned and rather an austere
man : he did not like children; but, rigidly just
in all his notions, he felt it his duty to attend
to a child neglected by others. He found,
with no small surprise, that his volatile son had
had the patience to instruct his young sister
himself, and consequently that, in many points
of useful information, she was much more ad-
vanced than Anne and Sophy. No doubt,
Isabella must have had good natural parts; but
her excessive fear of her parents, which lasted
for some years, made her work like the mole,
silently and in the dark, for she was not
reckoned by them a quick child. Her uncom-
mon memory and accuracy first gave her father
the idea of making her a scholar. She entered
into the plan with earnestness, and soon became
a great favourite, and, what favourites seldom
are — a very useful person.

" The first sorrow that chilled the heart of
the young Isabella, was the estrangement of
her brother — of that brother who had been to
her, parent, nurse, companion, instructor, for
so many years ! He fell into bad hands, and a

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 211

few, very few years of mad dissipation plunged
him into a premature grave. He was meant

for something better "'' Miss Barclay's voice

had been hitherto unbroken : she paused, and
averted her head. The hand that rested on
Montresor's arm, which he had offered her at
the beginning of their walk, just trembled, and
again was motionless. She resumed in rather
a faint tone, which, by degrees, grew again
animated.

" It was a grievous loss to Isabella ; it broke
the spirit of her father, and brought her mother
to the brink of the grave. Mrs. Albany, how-
ever, recovered, and her mind insensibly revert-
ed to other thincjs. She took her eldest dauojh-
ters into public, and rejoiced in the boundless
admiration they excited. Mr. Albany lived
more retired than ever, after he lost Frank : he
knew what he thought his wife need not, that
the extravagance of tliis idolized son had dis-
sipated all the property he had assigned to his
girls, and indeed involved himself so much,
that the strictest economy was necessary to
redeem his credit. Mrs. Albany had been

2J2 LORD amesfort's family.

ordered to some bathing-place for her health ;
she could not resist showing her daughters
everywhere; and the quiet parsonage was de-
serted by all, save its master and Isabella. A
few elderly men of talent, who had known Mr.
Albany well in former days ; a few neighbours,
who thought he must be dull alone ; and a few
of their sons, who came to wonder at the young
Miss that knew all the dead languages, formed
their society ; and Isabella, living among them,
and unaccustomed to think of women, or care
for them, acquired an unshrinking manner and
dauntless spirit, that made her very unpopular,
and shocked her mother."

Adolphus was about to interrupt Miss Bar-
clay, who, perceiving it, smiled, and added
hastily, " You would say, her manner now is
excellent : no doubt, she has had much sorrow
since, which softens the angles of a really good
character ; and she has also been, since her
father's death, thrown into the society of
women, and compelled by circumstances to
bend to their employments and avocations,
which has given her as feminine an appearance

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 213

as any one could wish. In one of Mrs. Al-
bany's frequent excursions, she met with Sir
Gerard Homer. He is an agreeable person,
and has, besides all the requisites for popularity,
fortune, family, and connexions. He proposed
for Anne, and was accepted. Had poor Frank
lived, he would have stopped this ill-starred
match, and discovered, what was unknown to
his mother, the doubtful character of his sister's
lover. Mrs. Albany was overjoyed : she had
expected him to marry one of the girls, but was
unable to discover which he preferred, and per-
haps that was more than ever he discovered
himself. He married Anne; and whether he
had any temptation for the jealousy he soon so
furiously betrayed, or whether her tranquillity
was the sole ground of his suspicions, I know
not ; — it is certain that he had soon the baseness
to tell her, he had at last made up his mind,
and that it was Sophy he had meant to marrv.

" Poor Sophy had either more sensibility
than her sister, or more capability of faUing in
love ; for she had seriously attached herself to
Sir Gerard, and had no doubt of his attachment

214 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

to her being equally decided. She was thun-
derstruck at the proposal coming to her sister ;
but there was no remedy, and she comforted
herself in the true heroine style, that her sister
at least would be happy, and she was to enjoy
her felicity. Alas ! there was none to enjoy ;
and when Sophy found her presence did but
add to her sister's misery, from the strange
manner in which Sir Gerard conducted himself
towards her, she returned to her father'^s house.
The tendency in the family to consumption,
which had so fatally fastened on their brother,
seemed now to threaten the girls. Lady Ho-
mer lived to give birth to a son ; and Mrs.
Albany was supporting the dying frame of
Sophy in her arms, when the intelligence
reached her of Anne's departure from this world
of sorrow. It was remarkable that the twins,
though separated from each other, and there-
fore unlikely to be influenced by mental sym-
pathy, invariably grew worse and better, feeble
or more cheerful, on the same days. Sophy
lived two days after her sister, but was insensi-
ble from the hour of Anne's death.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 215

Sir Gerard sent the infant to Mrs. Albany,
and offered to come himself; but this, Mrs. Al-
bany forbade. " Tell him," said the wretched
and indignant parent, " I have no more daugh-
ters for him to destroy." Some time previous
to the marriacre of one sister and the death of
both, Isabella had formed an intimacy with
Edward Chaloner, a man who has since dis-
tinguished himself in public life. He was then
very young, but fond of study, and fonder of
Isabella. There was always something he
could not do ^vithout her assistance, — some book
nobody but Miss Albany had, — some question
nobody but Miss Albany could answer. He
had many excellent qualities, which might have
recommended him to any one ; but on Isabella's
heart he had a claim which bound her to him
in adamantine chains. He had been the cho-
sen friend of her brother at College ; he was
thought to have had influence with him, and he
was known to have exerted it always bene-
ficially. It was soothing, when the censorious
and the indifferent raised the cry against that
highly-gifted being, over whose errors she had

216 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

shed more bitter tears than fell even on his
grave, it was like balm on the wounded
heart, to hear one voice raised in praise of his
virtues — in extenuation of his faults — in mourn-
ful tenderness for his loss ! Oh, such accents
must have fallen on the greedy ear, like the
dew of Heaven on the fainting wanderer in the
desert !"

The tone of unwonted earnestness in which
Miss Barclay spoke, made Adolphus involun-
tarily look up. He ^\ as struck at the alteration
in her countenance : her pale cheek glowed ;
her downcast eye, fraught with meaning, was
raised in dewy light to Heaven, — it was the flash
of a moment, which, almost before it could be
marked, had passed away. In her usual tone of
uninterested quietude, she continued : " While
Isabella and her young lover continued under
her father^s eye only, all went on prosperously ;
but when her sisters were taken from them,
Mrs. Albany had no spirits for her former
excursions ; and, as soon as she could think of
any thing but her grief, she began to wonder
at young Chaloner being so domesticated among

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 217

them. She expressed her wonder, but it was
not exactly to the right people : the whole
neighbourhood were aware of her sentiments ;
but those it most concerned had no guess of
them. To have spoken to Mr. Albany might
have seemed like blaming him ; and though she
loved her husband, it was not that perfect love
which casteth out fear. To Isabella she could
not well make any remark ; for, though evi-
dently enjoying the society of their guest, there
was nothing in her nature that allowed of flir-
tation, and the interest she took in young Cha-
loner was of too deep a nature, and had been
too long taking root in her mind, to be ex-
pressed by any trifling airs of coquetry. Be-
sides, their conversation so seldom ran on any
topic Mr. Albany understood, that she did not
know how or when to interfere, and it ended
by her not interfering at all. For this she has
been much, and, I think, unfairly blamed ; but
we are all prone to judge of actions by their
consequences, and to expect of people more
than they can perform.

" Edward Chaloner lost his eldest brother ;

VOL. I. L

218 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

and Miss Albany, whose father's distressed cir-
cumstances were guessed at, was no longer a fit
match for him : so, at least, thought his pa-
rents, and they laboured to cut the Gordian
knot of his intimacy there. The young man
resisted ; and it was found that some knots must
be untied, and cannot be suddenly divided.
An apoplectic stroke had threatened the life of
Mr. Albany. He struggled through it ; but
it weakened his intellects; and the last few
months of his existence, Isabella had the dread-
ful spectacle of mental decay, added to bodily
illness, to witness in a parent she had loved so
warmly when she had learned to know him, and
had at all times so fondly admired.

" She alone was equal to the arrangement of
his papers, and soon found that with her fa-
ther's life would cease nearly all their means of
subsistence. With a prudence and forethought
none could have expected from her age, she
made every necessary enquiry, and took every
step towards lightening the evil to her mother,
and in the mean time carefully concealed from
her this increase of calamity, rightly judging it

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 219

would serve as a break to her grief when her
husband should die, and would forcibly turn
her mind into another channel. She passed
some arduous months, and, no doubt, thought
them at the time most hard to bear; yet she was
not entirely without consolation. Misfortune,
and the exemplary manner in which she bore it,
served but to bind Edward more closely to her.
In an ordinary way he could often be useful to
her : his advice, his personal exertions, were far
from valueless; but his warm sympathy, his
ardent devotion, were better still. Her parents,
her concerns, her health seemed to, and indeed
did occupy him, to the exclusion of every
other thing.

" There is in the consciousness of being fer-
vently loved, a mingled triumph and tenderness,
that, more than any other strong feeling, influ-
ences every moment of our lives, and gives the
tone to the mind, and the colour to the thoughts.
WTiilst breathing in such an atmosphere, the
arrows of misfortune reach us indeed ; but they
come blunted and softened. It is only when
we know we sufi'er and feel at the same time,
l2

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

that it does not signify, that the wearied mind
droops under a sense of its own desolateness.
Isabella was anxious and unhappy ; but there
was nothing to palsy her active disposition, and
she went through her duties with energy as well
as steadiness. Her father died. Every thing
had been prepared and foreseen ; and they left
the place in which so many years had been
spent, and which, to Isabella, as well as her
mother, was hallowed by so many tender re-
collections, almost immediately.

"It was on quitting the neighbourhood that
Miss Albany discovered, by accident, the unea-
siness of the Chaloners, respecting their son,
and the former observations of her mother on
the subject. I do not believe that, before that
hour, Isabella thought she was ever likely to
marry Edward. She was so unlike other girls,
she had associated with so few, if any ; she had
given her mind so little to the romance of
youth, or the more worldly calculations of age,
that ' a good establishment '' would probably
have been a phrase beyond her comprehension.
Whether her pride was hurt at such ideas and

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 221

plans being attributed to her by the Chaloners ;
whether her lover made no definite offer, which
she could, consistent with her high notions of
honour and integrity towards every one, accept;
or whether, in the true spirit of enthusiastic love,
she gave him up, without a doubt of his con-
stancy arising in her mind, I do not know her
well enough to determine.

"He went abroad shortly after, and his pa-
rents certainly expressed themselves about her
and her conduct in terms of boundless admira-
tion. I ought to have known better. I had
been Ion"; enouo-h in the world to have been
better acquainted with its ways, and yet I did
flatter myself time would work miracles, and
that all parties would one day be brought to
agree to a union so very desirable in all really
essential points. I was mistaken : the Cha-
loners, having acquitted themselves to their o^v^l
conscience by the eulogiums pronounced on Isa-
bella, forgot her existence. It is not very long
since Edward Chaloner returned from the Con-
tinent, after an absence scarcely exceeding three
years — but he returned with a wife !""

g^2 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

Montresor started. He was utterly unpre-
pared for such a conclusion ; and he looked at
Miss Barclay, expecting she would in some way
qualify so abrupt an assertion. But Miss Bar-
clay had really done. She had told all she
knew, and she seemed little disposed to account
for the conduct of Edward Chaloner, to cen-
sure his inconstancy, or to allude in any way to
the feelings of Miss Albany. Adolphus at last
timidly asked how Isabella seemed to bear it.

" How !" said Miss Barclay^ with an ex-
pression almost of bitterness, " can such things
be known ? I am ignorant of the details, the
circumstances, whatever they might have been,
that must have tended either to lessen the
shock, or to add to its strength. I know the
fact; and I see Isabella, as I see thousands,
mixing in the throng and playing her part in
the world. It is not for me to say, whether she
has lost her interest in the things she does, or
her confidence in those she may yet hope for.
Her manner is milder than it used to be, her
expressions more vague, her countenance less
animated : but these changes I discovered be-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAiMILY. 223

cause I sought for them ; and to many, I make
no doubt, they would appear illusive, for the
alteration in her altogether, since the death of
her father, has been gradual, and she was
little known before."" — They had now reached
the house, and Miss Barclay entered before
Adolphus could thank her for the communica-
tions he had solicited and received.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

CHAPTER XVII.

The joyful tidings of Lord De Calmer's re-
turn, found Adolphus yet lingering at Sir
John Barclay's. The beautiful Caroline was
congratulated on the occasion, and she herself
had no objection to believe she was the attrac-
tion. Lady Barclay, indeed, saw easily that
the protracted visit of young Montresor had as
little to do with love for her daughters as for
herself. " But who knows," thought this prudent
mother, " what idleness may bring a man to at
last .'^—besides, if he will but stay long enough,
every one will tell him it is expected he should
marry some one of the girls, and he will end by
thinking that every one cannot be wrong.''

A few lines from the sea-port town, where

LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY. 225

Lord De Calmer, still weak and suffering, had
landed, summoned his impatient friend far out
of the reach of Lady Barclay's speculations.
The lieart of Adolphus, chilled or pained on
every other side, turned in a full tide of unre-
pressed tenderness to his destined brother.
Absorbed in his present feelings, giving free
loose to his vivid imagination, which painted a
futurity of bliss for Emily and De Calmer, his
journey appeared neither long nor tedious, and
he burst into his friend's apartment almost for-
get ting: he was to find him an invalid. The
warm glow of mingled feelings was checked by
one glance at De Calmer, who, worn to a sha-
dow, pale and almost powerless, held out his
emaciated hand to Adolphus, and did not trust
his voice to utter the welcome he so deeply felt.
Montresor was not less silent : shocked at the
fearful change in his brilliant friend, he remain-
ed for a moment like one overcome by the sud-
den consciousness of the vanity of human specu-
lations and wishes. He gazed on the altered
features of the sufferer with intense anxiety,
L 5

^26

and shuddered as he thought on what a slender
thread hung the hfe on which he had fondly
hoped so much felicity would be lavished.

" Vain dreamer !" murmured he to himself,
as, sighing deeply, he took his seat beside the
couch of his friend. De Calmer raised his
languid head and smiled ; — it was that pecu-
liar and beautiful smile, which had so forcibly
struck him before their acquaintance had com-
menced, and which he had then felt to recog-
nize. Even now, when engrossed by so many
feelings, it struck him in the same light, and a
half idea flashed across him that he had some-
times seen Emily look so ; but the thought was
evanescent, for this was not a moment to dwell
upon trifles. De Calmer had suffered much
from his voyage, from bad accommodations, im-
proper diet, and constitutional delicacy. His
ardent spirit and natural kindness of disposi-
tion, which led him continually to contribute to
the comfort of those about him at the expense
of his own, had injured his health, long previ-
ous to the action in which he received his

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 227

wounds. Though not dangerous, they were
numerous ; and the very hot weather that suc-
ceeded, retarded his recovery.

He was weary of his weakness, and felt a
sickly impatience to be with Lord Amesfort.
He assured Adolphus he wanted nothing to
cure liim but the presence of his friends, and
that his arrival had doubled his streno-th.
Montresor shook his head, and the next day
confirmed his fears. The emotion of the meet-
ing had been most prejudicial to the invalid ;
he had passed a feverish night, and was pe-
remptorily ordered not to think of moving for
some weeks. Adolphus set forth in search of
quieter lodgings than the inn he had first gone
to ; and, having succeeded in moving Lord De
Calmer ^athout fatigue to those he had select-
ed, prepared to write to Lord Amesfort. He
had hardly taken up his pen, when a carriage
drove to the door, and the Earl himself sprung
from it. Adolphus hastened to meet him ; and,
after answering the anxious enquiries of his
guardian, hinted at the propriety of sparing

3^8 LORD AMESFORT^S FAMILY.

Lord De Calmer an interview for the present,
till his exhausted strength was somewhat re-
stored.

The Earl had been sufficiently alarmed be-
fore ; — now, the caution of Montresor,and, above
all, the melancholy of his countenance, inspired
him with the most gloomy apprehensions. His
head drooped on his hand, and tears unrepress-
ed, because unmarked, silently and slowly fell
over a face furrowed by many a care. Affected
by his grief, Montresor's heart warmed towards
his guardian : he forgot whose husband he was^
and saw only the affectionate uncle of his friend.
Lord Amesfort did not seem disposed to repel
the sympathy that was offered him. " See,^'
said he, after a long sad silence, " how un-
grateful we are ! Providence must take back
the blessings vouchsafed us, ere we acknow-
ledge their value. It is the spirit of discontent
aiid impatience that prompts the assertion, ' we
have nothing left to care for.' My punishment
is just, — it has taught me how dearly I loved
the son of my poor Frances."

" De Calmer is very young," returned Adol-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 229

phus, in a tone that imitated but ill the accent
of hope ; " and when his strength will permit
him to see you, his recovery, no doubt, will be
accelerated by proofs of a regard he never
doubted, but which it is always gratifying to
see displayed.

The Earl heard him not ; but seizing the pen
Montresor had been on the point of using to
write to him, he scratched a few hasty lines;
then, overturning, without much ceremony, De
Calmer's desk in search of some sealing-w^ax,
rang the bell to send off his letter. As he re-
placed the things more leisurely, a small minia-
ture fell on the ground. The case opened with
the fall, and Adolphus exclaimed, as he picked
it up, " My sister !''

" Is it like her ?'' asked Lord Amesfort, in a
tone of interest, which surprised his auditor, who
replied, " It is like, as pictures usually are, for
strangers : it is very unsatisfactory to me, and
probably yet more so to De Calmer."

The Earl continued to gaze upon it : he held
it in various lights, as if he sought a likeness
that escaped him ; then looking up suddenly, he

230 LORD amesfort's family.

said, " So, then, my nephew loves your sister ?
Are they engaged ?"

" I believe, not exactly," said Montresor,
embarrassed, in spite of himself, at the stead-
fast, stern look of his guardian.

'' Then, young man," said Lord Amesfort,
striking his hand forcibly on the table, " give
me leave to say, you ought to know exactly.
I have no claim on your confidence ; say or
withhold from me, but be not yourself doubt-
ful,— you, who hold for your young sisters the
place of a father."

" I do not doubt my sister''s prudence, or my
friend's honour," mildly answered Adolphus.

" Words, words !" cried the Earl, with in-
creasing vehemence ; he stopped, then turning
his dark eye, full of powerful contemptuous
meaning, on Montresor, he coldly asked, " Is it
quite wise, quite equitable, to expect from others
the self-command we have not ourselves .P"

Adolphus shuddered as the light flashed
through the inmost and guilty recesses of his
soul ; anger inspired him with transient cou-
rage to meet the look he dreaded ; and the fea-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 231

tures that so lately wore the expression of grief
and mildness, now blazed with wrath, bordering
on hatred. He would have spoken, but an air
of wildness spread itself over the EarFs coun-
tenance ; and Adolphus felt unable to resist the
gesture between despair and authority, which
checked his words. A sullen silence ensued,
which would have continued unbroken, but for
a summons from De Calmer for his friend.
Montresor went, and his irritable feelings gave
way before the heartfelt satisfaction which De
Calmer's improved appearance excited. He
communicated his new-born hopes to his guar-
dian, but they seemed powerless to chase the
gloom from his brow. The tone of deep sad-
ness with which the Earl thanked him, smote
the kind heart of his ward : he stood irresolute
what to say, yet longing to say something.
Lord Amesfort, Avho appeared to know by in-
tuition every turn in his feelings, motioned him
to take a chair beside him, and kindly attempt-
ed a few words of congratulation ; but they died
on his lips, and again he relapsed into silence.
Lord Amesfort broke it abruptly. '' Adol-

LORD AMESFOKt'S FAMILY.

phus,^' he began, " it grieves me to give you
pain ; and yet, if you are unprepared, the blow
will be heavier. I do not think, if our dear
Henry recovers, he will marry your sister."'
" I think he will, my Lord, unless — "
" Unless I prevent it : I understand you,
and certainly I might fairly say I shall not
prevent it. Nay, I wish it — more, far more,
than you can. You look incredulovis ; but you
do not know me ; and it is not the least of my
sorrows, that you never will.**' The Earl
paused, and turned away his face ; but uncon-
sciously he pressed Montresor's hand, who,
touched at the unwonted tenderness of his
manner, bent his head to meet the hand that
had caressed him. He almost started, as he
felt a tear fall on his forehead. A new and
indescribable emotion seized him : for a mo-
ment he longed to throw himself at his guar-
dian's feet and be folded to his heart ; he smiled
at his own ardent imagination, and sighed as
he threw himself back in his chair.

" Why should I deceive you," resumed
Lord Amesfortj in a broken voice ; "I must

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 233

not think of what I wish. It is my duty to
speak to Henry, nor will I conceal from you,
that the result of our conversation will pro-
bably be inimical to your wishes."*"*

" I had nothing but your opposition to
dread," anxiously remarked Adolphus ; " and
if you do not object, I do not see what is to
prevent De Calmer and Emily from being
happy their own way. They will not be rich ;
but riches are not happiness."

" It is not money,"" murmured the Earl.

" What then is it, my Lord ? My sister"'s
appearance and education fit her for any situa-
tion ; and though I do not pretend to be a
genealogist, or to know much about my family,
yet the honour my mother has of being related
to your Lordship, satisfies me on that head,
and might satisfy De Calmer."

"It is possible, however, that it may not :
but we will not anticipate evils. — Poor girl !"
Lord Amesfort continued ; " she is very young,
too young, I would fain hope, to love for ever."

" Ah, my Lord !" resumed Montresor, in an
imploring accent, "is it not just then we do

234 LORD amesfort's family.

love? If you knew my dear Emily, you
would not wonder — ^''

" That Henry should love her,'^ interrupted
Lord Amesfort, '' I am not wondering : nay, I
should have rejoiced, if he had not been, as it
were, left to my charge ; and if I did not think
myself answerable, in some degree, for his con-
duct. In giving him my reasons against the
match, I shall not conceal my wish to see it
take place : but do not flatter yourself ; if I
know him, he will be little influenced by it.
Now, my dear Adolphus, go to De Calmer, and
when you have seen his physician, you can de-
termine whether I shall wait a day or two, in
the hope of his being well enough to see me, or
return at once, and give up the point till he is
strong enough to travel."

Montresor obeyed in silence, wondering what
the secret reasons could be that were to deter-
mine his sister's fate, yet unable to feel depress-
ed, now the only bar he could see to her hap-
piness, in the disapprobation of his guardian, was
removed. De Calmer was allowed to see his
uncle on the following day ; and during a fort-

LORD AiMESFORT'S FAMILY. 235

night that Montresor and Lord Amesfort assi-
duously watched by his couch, the rapidity of
his recovery seemed to verify his own asser-
tion, that he wanted nothing to cure him but
the presence of those he loved. His weakness
put an almost continual restraint on conversa-
tion ; yet did Adolphus and his guardian feel
to know each other better in that short space
of time than they had ever done before. Lord
Amesfort seemed disposed to lay aside his
haughtiness ; but his melancholy had taken too
strong hold of him to be shaken off. Montresor
was often affected by an unexpected look, or
tone of tenderness in the Earl ; and then mar-
velled to see him return to his cold, stern man-
ner, as if he repented having betrayed a regard
he wished to conceal.

This was very incomprehensible ; yet were
his own feelings towards h:s guardian to the
full as much so : he felt to nourish within him,
at once, the two distinct impulses of love and
sympathy, of dread and dislike : as these in-
stincts predominated, he shrunk from Lord
Amesfort, or sought him out, wondering, at the

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

same time, at the keenness, no less than the in-
consistency, of his own emotions. " There is,
surely," thought he, " a hidden charm about
this man, at once to attract and repel."" — Then
he would think of Lady Amesfort, and wonder
how she could live with so singular a being,
without love or hatred : yet he well knew she
felt neither: to be utterly indifferent about
him; to forget his very existence, as she did,
was marvellous, — Adolphus thought, impossible.
Then would the native generosity of his temper
urge him to fathom the character, the inexplica-
ble character, of his guardian, in the hope of lead-
ing him to win a heart which he had hitherto
neglected. " If she knew him, she would surely
love him ; and she, at least, would be happy."
Such would sometimes be the conclusion of his
reveries, from which he would start with horror,
as if he were guilty of treachery towards her he
loved, in wishing, for one moment, to appro-
priate her heart to another, when he so deeply
felt it to be his.

As soon as De Calmer was pronounced equal

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 237

to the fatigue of a journey, Lord Amesfort was
eager to take him home ; and INIontresor, sigh-
ing, as he felt himself excluded from that home,
prepared to visit his mother, and to hold out to
Emily the soothing prospect of soon seeing his
friend. De Calmer's evident impatience to be
well, and at liberty to roam whither he would,
was often accounted for by allusions to Wales ;
and Montresor left him, proud of the stability
of an affection, the decay of which he had ex-
pected, and fondly hoping that nothing would
arise to impede a union likely to produce so
much happiness. With the renewal of this
sanguine spirit he inhaled the pure air with
delight, and drew a long breath at finding him-
self escaped from a sick-room, and the still more
oppressive sadness of his guardian. Yet his
spirits sunk, as the chimneys of his mother's
house rose through the trees to his view.
" Alas !'' thought he, " if the melancholy of
Lord Amesfort overpowered me in a few weeks,
how can my poor sister sustain the more con-
stant weight of my mother's despondency ?

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

How strange, that two people so highly gifted,
so formed to be beloved, should be the prey of a
grief that seems to know no end !*"

The stopping of the carriage checked his
further soliloquy. He thought his mother less
feeble than usual ; but he would have been
shocked at the change visible in Emily, had he
not supposed he possessed a cordial to revive
her decaying bloom. She was indeed cherished
by her brother's presence, and was eager to re-
mark to Mrs. Montresor, how much better he
seemed, than when last they met. She flattered
herself all was again well, aad that her admired
Adolphus had returned to his former self, and
would be guarded by past experience from simi-
lar wanderings. Montresor saw himself rise in
his sister's opinion, and sighed to think how
little he deserved to do so.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 239

CHAPTER XVIII.

Adolphus continued to linger in Wales,
fondly hoping every day might bring De Cal-
mer, of whose entire convalescence he had re-
ceived frequent assurances. Time passed on,
and still he came not. Lord Amesfort's words
recurred to his mind, and, for the first time, a
fear arose of their having had more meaning
than he wished to lend to them. Immediately
he determined on returning to town, and finding
out De Calmer's present plans and feelings.
He spoke cheerfully to Emily at parting, for
he thought it would be time enough to commu-
nicate his anxiety when there was proof of its
being well-founded. He rejoiced to leave her
well and cheerful. He did not know that her
tears were restrained from falling, only until he

240 LORD amesfort's family.

could not see them ; and that the smile with
which she now habitually dressed her features,
vanished with the effort that produced it.

Lord De Calmer was in the country with the
Amesforts; but Adolphus heard from Isabella
Albany (who was in town), that he was not so
strong as he had believed himself, and that he
had been recommended to try a better climate.
He ceased to write; but this was easily account-
ed for, Adolphus thought ; whilst in Wales,
letters might be read by Emily, as well as her
brother ; but, now that Montresor was alone,
there was nothing surprising in his friend fail-
ing in correspondence, and he simply concluded
that he had nothing to say. Yet when this
silence continued unbroken, he began to feel
uncomfortable, and to dread he knew not what.
He wrote to Emily, exaggerating De Calmer^'s
weakness, though careful not to excite any
needless apprehensions ; but each time that he
thus felt called upon to account for De Calmer's
absence, it became more irksome and strange

to him.

One evening that he was walking home later

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 241

than usual, an unexpected shower induced him
to tliink of shelter; he remembered a commis-
sion his sister had given him respecting some
books, and made the best of his way to a book-
seller's shop. They were shutting it up, and
sending off the parcels bespoken during the
day. One of them was pushed by the clerk
towards that part of the counter where Adol-
phus stood, and mechanically he glanced his
eye across the direction. He almost started.

"Is that gentleman in town ?''"' he asked of
the person who had just directed it.

"Yes, Sir, he is ; — was in the book-room this
morning. — Here, James, take this parcel ; be
very particular about it — don't forget the bill."

^lontresor took out his list, and leaving it
with the man nearest him, left the shop imme-
diately. The rain had rather increased since
first he had thought of avoiding it, but he did
not perceive it. He kept the lad in view who
carried the parcel, unable to arrange his ideas
sufficiently to guide himself to the place of his
destination. The young messenger had many
other places to call at, and as he took those that

VOL. I. M

242 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

lay at all in his way, before they reached Bed-
ford-square, Adolphus was completely drenched.
He leaned against the railway of a fine house,
as the lad went down the area, and asked himself
if it were possible De Calmer could live in so
large a house, and in a situation so remote from
all his haunts and acquaintances.

" I cannot go in now, but I can ask who
lives here;" — and having come to this apparently
simple determination, after much reflection, he
knocked at the door, almost starting at the
noise he made, as if he had expected De Calmer
himself would open it to him. It was opened^,
at last, and Montresor felt relieved at not know-
ing the man^s face. It was not De Calmer's
servant, nor Lord Amesforfs ; and he must
have read the direction ill. In vain the man
assured him Lord De Calmer lived there ; he
continued to put other questions to him, from a
doubt of the fact. He was doomed to be con-
vinced, for his friend was coming down to din-
ner ; and, hearing his voice, could not resist the
impulse of the moment, and sprung forward to
meet him, though he had so often systematically

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 243

avoided him since his return to town. The
warmth of De Calmer's manner, his cordial
greeting, his kind voice, every tone of which
had power over the heart of Montresor, con-
vinced him, against the evidence of his senses,
that all was right, — that all would be explained.
He yielded to his earnest entreaty of remaining
with him, and followed the servant to Lord De
Calmer's apartment.

Whilst he furnished him with dry clothes,
the man, who had been long in the family,
and had a regard for Montresor as his master"'s
friend, expressed his satisfaction at seeing him
again. " If you had been with us, Sir,^' pursued
the valet, " I cannot help thinking matters
would have turned out better. My Lord is
always quieter when you are with him ; and,
weak as h( is still, he should be kept calm ;
instead of which, the old Lord and he had such
talkings and closetings; and my master, he
would run out of the house like one possessed ;
and when I 'd go and seek him, a thousand to
one if he was not lying on the damp grass, or
some such bad place for a sick man. And the
M 2

S44 LORD amesfort's family.

poor Countess, she would take on sadly, and
cry when she thought herself alone, all for want
of Miss Albany to comfort her/'

The man paused to be questioned ; but Adol-
phus could not have uttered, had he wished it ;
and the servant, pitying his agitation, continued:
" Now, Sir, I would not have you to think my
Lord quarrelled with his uncle. No, indeed ;
they seemed very good friends at parting— only
something was wrong, I could see clearly/'

" Many things are wrong in this world, my
good Mark," said Montresor with effort, as he
took his watch out of the servant's hand : but it
mends nothing to talk about it ; so, do not say
so to any one else."

" No, Sir, certainly, Sir." And the man hesi-
tated ; but seeing Montresor on the point of
leaving the room, he laid his hand on the han-
dle of the door, and said in a low voice, " I
think. Sir, you ought to know, that Mr. Knolls
— this house belongs to Mr. Knolls, Sir — that
he means to get my master for his sister."

" I suppose," replied Montresor, trying to
smile, " Lord De Calmer will not be got by any

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 245

body, but will choose whom he pleases. He is
his own master.'"

" Very true, Sir, so one may say ; and yet I
have seen people, as much their o\vti master, do
things in the marrying way they never much
intended to do.'"'

" But we cannot help that, Mark.''
" / cannot, Sir ; but my Lord loves you ;
and, to my fancy, he don't care for Mr. Knolls,
though he is so much with him, and they drink
so much wine together. He is a gay man, they
tell me ; and only wants to marry off his sister,
that he may bring home his mistress, and live
comfortably with her. Mrs. ^loore is a widow,
and a poor one ; and being his only sister, he
can't so well turn her out of his house till she
has another to go to. You will see her at din-
ner, Sir : and pray don't admire her siveet smile,
like my poor master ; for she has a devil of a
tongue of her owti, as he'U find if he should
marry her." And having finished his warning,
and received an assenting smile from Montresor,
he suffered him to depart, and ushered him into
a splendid dining-room, in which about a dozen

246 LORD amesfort's family.

people were seated. He was introduced to Mr.
Knolls and his sister; and the extreme gra^
ciousness of the latter brought the servant's
caution to his mind. Mrs. Moore was a fine
woman, who had been younger, but had pro-
bably never looked better, dressed more fashion-
ably, or rouged with greater skill. She talked
and laughed more than Montresor liked; but
not, it would have seemed, more than Lord De
Calmer liked, who sat next her, and paid her a
degree of attention that surprised his friend.

Adolphus was slightly acquainted with one
or two men of the party, which prevented his
feeling as awkward from the entire neglect of
De Calmer as he might otherwise have done :
yet still he wondered ; and when the ladies re-
tired, he wondered still more. The party was
then so small, that, having drawn their chairs
round the fire, something hke conversation was
possible. De Calmer did not seem to think so ;
for he hardly spoke, and did not even look at
his friend when he pushed the bottle to him.
Adolphus trembled as he saw the carmine spot
on De Calmer's cheek deepen and spread, and

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 2i7

his hand grow tremulous as he raised the oft-
replenished glass to his lips. He would have
taken him out, but he heard the rain still patter
against the windows ; and there was no house
near, to which there could be any reason for
going. He did not hke to propose joining the
ladies ; for he had no chance of speaking to him
there, more than at dinner. It was evident,
however, that he could not remain much longer
where he was, without being completely in-
toxicated.

Taking advantage, therefore, of a move, from
the departure of one of the party, he summoned
De Calmer to follow him. The young Peer
hesitated. Besides his embarrassment at being
alone with Adolphus, he had just taken enough
wine to wish for more, and to have resented any
one disturbing him — if he could have resented
any thing from Adolphus. The master of the
house was urgent to detain them ; but, without
heeding his remonstrances, Montresor repeated
his request, in that friendly tone of authorita-
tiveness, so few people thought fit to resist.
His friend did not, but instantly arose, and

248 LORD amesfort's family.

took the arm held out to him. As they as-
cended a broad handsome staircase, Montresor
asked when he could see De Calmer, and how
long he thought of staying in town. His
vague, hurried answers appeared to Montresor
to be the effect of the wine he had taken, and
he earnestly remonstrated with him on so in-
judicious a practice in the reduced state he had
so lately been in. " You want me to nurse
you again, I believe,'" he continued, smiling
affectionately as he pressed his burning hand in
his ; and De Calmer, overcome by his kindness,
hid his face on his shoulder, vehemently ex-
claiming, " My dearest friend ! how unworthy
I am ! — how ungrateful you must think me !'**
Then, opening the drawing-room door, he him-
self escaped down a dark passage, leaving his
friend in the full blaze of a lustre. Adolphus
was obliged to go in, though he longed to pur-
sue him, and learn the meaning of his disjointed
phrases. He watched every one who entered
during an evening that appeared to him end-
less ; but it was neither De Calmer nor any
message from him.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY 249

In his state of anxious suspense, few things
could be more intolerable than the lively rattle
of the gay widow, who had seldom taken more
pains to amuse, and had certainly never failed
so entirely. Tired at last of liis forced atten-
tion and absent replies, she left him to himself.
A fe^v people arrived, all strangers to Adol-
phus, who sat down to cards or music, without
appearing to wonder that he neither joined in
the one, nor listened to the other. It grew late,
and, convinced that De Calmer would not re-
turn, Montresor took leave of Mrs. Moore, and
went to the room in which he had dressed on
his arrival. It was empty, but his clothes were
laid out by the careful ^lark. As they were
thoroughly dry, Adolphus would have put
them on ; but a scarcely acknowledged feeling,
that they might be the means of his hearing
sooner of Lord De Calmer than seemed other-
wise likely, restrained him. He wrote three
words in pencil, which he left on his friend's
desk, — merely to say vv^here he was, and at what
hours he was always at home. He was sure of
this reacliing De Calmer, from the vigilance of
M 5

250 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

Mark ; and so thoroughly miserable did Adol-
phus at that moment feel, that he could have
wept at the thought, how much more secure he
was of being remembered and sought out by
the servant, than by his master.

He went home, and for six days he waited in
the same room, almost in the same spot, look-
ing with apparent calmness for the expected
visit. The seventh day closed upon him in bit-
terness, for no one came. Pride might have
steeled his heart, had it been only for himself ;
but he thought of his sister, and relented.
" Yes, for your sake,'''' murmured he, " only
for yours, my Emily," as he sallied forth for
Bedford Square.

" Is Lord De Calmer at home?"

" Not at home.''

•' When do you expect him ?"

" I could not say indeed, Sir ; — he has been
out of town some days.''

" Some days !" Adolphus involuntarily re-
turned his card to his pocket, but the servant
had seen it.

'* There is a letter for you, Sir, and a parcel;

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 251

but my master forgot where Lord De Calmer
desired them to be sent."

Adolphus breathed again. " Give me the let-
ter," were liis first words, holding out the
card by which to send the parcel. He waited
an age for the letter, and began to think it
must be lost, when the servant very leisurely
appeared with it in his hand. Montresor walk-
ed rapidly away, quite forgetting to attend to
his road in his eao^erness to devour the contents
of this letter, in which, however, he in vain
sought an elucidation of his friend's conduct.
It ran thus : —

" MY DEAREST ADOLPHUS,
"It seems to me that nothing I can say for
myself, can be the shadow of an excuse. Be-
sides, you know, I do not love to say what is
not, and surely to you, my own friend, I would
not breathe a thought that did not rise from
my heart. I am doing every thing you would
not wish me to do ; and yet, I must go on.
Every hour in the day I long to be with you ;
and yet, if I came, we should not be happy.

252 LORD amesfort's family.

Do you think there is such a word, or that it
has any meaning ? My uncle says not, and I
am disposed to be of his way of thinking. I
have followed your advice, and given up wine
and my drinking friends.- — Friends ! You and
I, Montresor, were not used so to misname peo-
ple ! You will hear I am going to marry Mrs.
Moore. I think I shall not. I say I think,
because I have learnt to speak with caution of
my own actions, for I have certainly no present
intention of putting on the shackles in favour of
maid or widow. I am going into Scotland with
my uncle — at least, I believe I am, if I do not
change my mind. I saw your friend Isabella
Albany lately. I wish I could make a tour of
the Continent with her; 1 think she would
cure me of all my follies, and frailties, and
prejudices : — how little, if that were to take
place, would then remain of your friend !
I can't fancy how I should feel — very unlike
what I do now, assuredly, though hardly more
entirely

Yours,

Be Calmer."

LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY. 253

In vain did Montresor read over this hasty
scrawl, and put it by to reflect on what it
might mean : it still remained a riddle, which
he had not the means of solving. He could not
indeed blind himself to the cruel fact, that his
sister was deserted. In all his prospects, in all
his feelings, that one little sunny spot alone re-
mained ; and now thick gloom had overtaken
that too, and all was alike blank and cheerless.
Montresor entered his solitary lodging, and as
he spread De Calmer's letter on the table before
him, and gazed on it without again attempt-
ing to read it, a feeling so desolate and for-
lorn crept over him, that he could almost fancy
his pulses stood still, and his stagnant blood
refused to flow.

" Is it not my own fault," at last he cried
aloud ; " have I not persisted in loving the un-
loveable beings that surround me ? Why could
I not do like others, and love and hate by rule ;
caring for people while it was prudent, or might
be useful ? In the desert of life I mocked the
barrenness that I beheld, and poured out my
soul on the wide waste, vainly thinking I should

254 LORD amesfort's family.

animate it ! My feelings have been spread out
before the fierce rays of the sun, and the pier-
cing storms of heaven. I have neither guarded
nor repressed them ; and they return to crush
me. And is it thus our hearts must always
wither within us ? Must we outlive ourselves,
and become a moving grove ? And is this the
life we struggle to defend, — we wish to others
as a kindness ? Isabella ! Is your cold creed
Wisdom ? If so, then what a dreamer have
I been !"

Adolphus let his head fall on the table, and
gave way to that nameless reverie, which is not
thought, which is not suffering, and yet which
partakes of both. She, whose gentleness might
have soothed, whose strength might have sup-
ported him, was, alas ! far distant. Isabella
had left Lady Amesfort, to be with her mother
by the sea-side, whither her delicate health fre-
quently carried her. Lord De Calmer was still
in town. Once, at the Opera, Adolphus saw him.
He knew too that he was seen, and veiled his
eyes to spare himself another meeting. Mon-
tresor, who often felt his mind palsied when

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. ^55

alone, started into life and energy as he caught
a glance of his friend. He bent forward to
gaze on him ; and when convinced he would
not see him, he abruptly quitted the house.
De Calmer had followed him with his eye, — he
arose involuntarily. iNIontresor looked back ;
and the look smote the heart of his friend, who
rushed out of the box to join him. He paused
to reflect in the corridor ; he saw the towering
form which he had come to seek, darkening the
turn in the passage, and, shrinking back, he
drew his hat over his face. Montresor walked
steadily on ; he did not look to the right or the
left ; and De Calmer flattered himself he had
not been seen. He was mistaken : the eye and
heart of INIontresor had drunk the poison to the
very dregs. He had actually seen De Calmer
recoil from him ; his mind yet hesitated to take
in the dreadful conviction ; and while the smile
of delirium dwelt on his lips, he repeated to
himself — " Oh, it is im}X)ssible ! I know it is
impossible I"'

A few days brought him a letter from Emily.
It had been a severe task to break to her that

256 LORD amesfort's family.

De Calmer spoke of marriage with another as a
possible event. Not that Montresor ever be-
lieved he would marry either Mrs. Moore or
any one else, but it was the only way in which
he could hint that she was forgotten, or, at
least, given up. He painted to himself all
Emily would think and write ; and when at
last he got her answer, its calmness was almost
a shock to him, so violent was the surprise.
He began to flatter himself she had never cared
for his altered friend ; but when with this new
idea he studied her words, he felt how she had
weighed them, and he admired the self-control
she had always exercised in alluding to her
faithless lover. One only phrase betrayed the
interest she felt in the topic ; — it was a request
that he would not again name De Calmer ; but
it was said with such apparent simplicity, and
seemed so well accounted for by her in a gene-
ral way, that it had peculiar meaning only to
those who looked for it.

He was still applauding the proper pride
with which she veiled her feelings, when Mark
came to inform him he was to accompany his

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 257

master and Lord Amesfort to Scotland on the
following day. Adolphus gave liim a note for
Lord De Calmer, desiring him not to deliver it
till they had left to^vn. He knew how much
his friend was the slave of impulse. He might,
perhaps, seek him out on the first receipt of the
letter, and avoid him again. Feeling himself
unequal to stand these perpetual tergiversa-
tions, Adolphus determined that when again
they met it should be the unbiassed act of his
friend. He should owe the action to no foreign
impulse, but both to his affection and his judg-
ment. Adolphus tried to avoid the shadow of
reproach, yet did every word convey one to
the sensitive breast of De Calmer. He wrote
thus : —

" Your servant called to see me before his
journey, and by him, therefore, I send a hasty
answer to your last. I know nothing of Mrs.
Moore ; but if you like her, why shotdd you not
marry her ? Who seeks to control you, and to
whom are you accountable ? Because I thought
you too young to marry before you went

^58 LORD amesfort's family.

abroad, do you suppose I mean to object to it
always ? I am quite relieved by your promise
to give your health fair play. I should sup-
pose, indeed, on your travels your temptation
to drink would not be great. I have some
thoughts of going abroad, if I can prevail on
my mother to part with me. She is better than
usual, so that I have a faint hope of succeeding.

Truly yours,

A. M."

LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY. 259

CHAPTER XIX.

The Earl of Aniesfort was visiting, for the
second time in his life, property he possessed,
of considerable value, towards the northern ex-
tremity of the Island, and which, but for the
hope of dissipating his nephew, by a view of
home-scenery at least as magnificent as the
young Briton surmounts so many obstacles to
behold on the Continent, he would probably
never have seen again. The Border country is
in all directions bleak and bare; and as LordDe
Calmer could not find any interest in his road,
Lord Amesfort roused him by relating the very
different views and feelings with which he had
twenty years before travelled in the same di-
rection. As he dwelt on sorrows which no
time could weaken, and faults which no repent-

^60 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

ance could expiate, the sufferings of his ne-
phew faded away, or seemed light indeed by
comparison. Then came objects of curiosity,
ancient legends, and family traditions, to claim
a share of interest from the youthful traveller,
and wean him successfully from home. - :

When his uncle saw his versatile mind al-
ready take another direction, he ceased to speak
of himself, and returned to his usual habits of
taciturnity and apparent indifference, leaving
the young man to follow the new bent he had
given him. Shrinking, as De Calmer always
did, from all painful associations, it is not won-
derful that he did not write to Montresor. He
meant it, indeed ; but the thing was irksome,
and therefore deferred ; so that the time for
execution never came. Meanwhile Adolphus,
ignorant, at four hundred miles distance, of
these good resolutions and fluctuations, lived
between hope and fear for some weeks. He
tried to think of something else; he tried to
reason himself into more moderation and pa-
tience ; but the doctrine was new to him, and
most adverse to his nature, and he made but

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 261

little proficiency in it. " Hope deferred maketh
the heart sick ;'"* and the sickness was now
strong on INlontresor. All earthly things have
their limits. A proud, cold resentment took
place of the wounded feelings of disappointed
friendship, and with the determination of learn-
ing to care for nothing, he went through the
common routine of life ; while men shrunk from
his stern unsocial manner, and could not guess
how full of the milk of human kindness was the
heart he hid from them.

His German friend was in town, and did
not relax in his attentions. Adolphus was
much there. The house of young new-married
people is generally pleasant, and the Barclays
were a cheerful family : there was much mirth
and some happiness among them. They all
Uked Adolphus ; he felt at his ease \vdth them,
danced and sung mth the young people, was
ready to make up Sir John''s rubber, and feel-
ing he had done all that was expected in
society, he often congratulated himself on hav-
ing learnt the art of intimacy without affec-
tion. He was calling one day on Gustavus,

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY,

and left his card on being denied admittance :
Jie had not, however, got to the end of the
street, when the servant came after him, and
he found Eleanor in great distress. Her baby,
a few months old, was ill, and the young
mother thought she could not have too much
advice for it. She had heard him mention
a physician of some eminence, as peculiarly
skilful in the diseases of infants, and she sent
after him accoraingly to learn further par-
ticulars. Adolphus entirely won her heart,
by offering to go instantly for the person he
had mentioned ; and having been fortunate
enough to find him at home, he returned with
him in less than half an hour. Whether the
child's illness had been serious from the be-
ginning, or was rendered so by the variety
of remedies with which it was tormented.
Dr. L. did not say ; but he shook his head,
and the awful sign did not prognosticate evil
in vain, for the next day the baby died.

The despair of the mother knew no bounds ;
and when Montresor called to ask about her
shortly after, Gustavus took him in silence to the

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 263

bedside, wliere a raging fever confined Eleanor,
and pointed to the insensible form of his late
blooming wife with so touching an expression
of grief, that ^lontresor's heart was melted,
and he determined to devote his time to this
house of sickness and sorrow, and at least
prevail on Gustavus not to ruin his own
health by perpetual watchings. The unfor-
tunate mother was soon declared out of dan-
ger. Miss Barclay had come to nurse her ;
and Montresor quitted the house, when he
could no longer be useful, without once asking
if the fever was infectious, nor, though feeling
ill for some days after, did he ascribe it to
any thing but fatigue. He grew worse how-
ever, and confined himself to his room, and
then to his bed, but resisted the entreaty of
his servant to send for medical assistance,
from the internal conviction, that his disorder
was the effect of vexation, which his youth
and natural strength would effectually subdue
in time.

The mind may be quelled, but unfortu-
nately the body is not quite under our sub-

264 LORD amesfort's family.

jection : Adolphus was soon incapable either
of acting or directing. When first he woke
to consciousness, after this severe attack, his
head was giddy, and his frame weak. He
closed his eyes from the light that pained
them. A female figure shaded the candle
with her hand, as she bent over him : he felt
anxious to know who was thus interested for
him — he thought of his mother, of Emily,
but they were far away. He looked again.
Could it be ? his heart beat fast, and his
head swam yet more. His sight was confused,
and he sighed, as he thought how his imagi-
nation could deceive him. Some one felt his
pulse : it was a large rough hand, and the
ticking of a watch assured him who was near :
he listened to the low murmur that followed,
but could not distinguish what was said. He
thought a tear fell on his hand ; it was wiped
off by a very soft handkerchief. He moved
his head with difficulty — the light gleamed
full on a tearful face indeed, but one that
beamed with hope — and it was the face of
Lady Amesfort ! He closed his eyes, to keep

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. ^65

the fair vision in his mind, — for how could it
be real ? He lay quiet from weakness, but he
could not sleep. Shortly after, he heard some-
thing poured into a glass, and some one say
in a wliisper, it was the hour to give it him.
He was raised gently, he did not see by whom,
and the glass touched his lips. He did not
feel disposed to swallow the medicine, and
turned away his head.

" He is not sensible yet," said a low voice
near him,

" Yes he is,"" replied another, that made
him start. The speaker, who supported him
in her arms, bent her head towards him, and
asked him to drink. Had it been poison, he
would not have refused it — for now he was
sure it was no vision, — 'twas she whom he
loved that stood by him — it was her tear
which had fallen upon her hand — her voice
that fell like balm upon liis heart. From
that hour he recovered rapidly, and was soon
moved into his guardian's house, which was
more spacious and airy for an invalid. He

VOL. I. N

^66 LORD amesfort's family.

was exhausted by the removal, but his weak-
ness spared him much agitation. He was not
in a state to reflect — to remember he had been
tacitly banished from that house, and that, in
Lord Amesforf s absence, it was the last in
which he should set his foot. He felt only
that he was at the guidance of the Countess;
it was pleasing to be led by her, and he was
content to be taken whither she wished.

His entire recovery was slow; but he did
not think it tedious, for Lady Amesfort was
his constant companion, his indefatigable nurse.
In the continually renewing consciousness of
her attachment, he felt a luxury in existence,
that had hitherto been denied him : he thought
not of her husband; he scarcely thought of
his own beloved mother and sisters. His home,
his heart was with her, and he forgot every
thing but her. In the bliss of exclusive de-
voted affection, he seemed to gain a new being :
his whole soul, subdued, inundated with tender-
ness, was lost to every other sensation. What
indeed was there to rouse him, since she who

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 267

inspired the infatuation, so fully shared it ?
With returning strength, however, some of
the trance gave way, — the enchantment was
dissolved ; and though he loved as deeply, it
was no longer so happily. Miss Albany re-
turned to town, and the spell broke at once.

Isabella rarely condemned her friends, but
her vigorous mind instantly turned to the
means of repairing what could not be undone.
Her first idea was to take Lady Amesfort away,
lea\'ing Adolphus in possession of the house,
and writing the Earl as plain and simple a
statement of the fact as possible. But she
could not now mould the ductile mind of her
friend as wax in her hand. She wept, but she
would not yield. Isabella then turned to jNIon-
tresor, and implored him not to reward the ge-
nerous cares of the Countess by blasting her
character, and destroying her husband's confi-
dence in her. Adolphus listened in gloomy
silence : he knew she was right ; but the time was
past when he would have tried to do what was
right, cost what it would. He awaited his fiat
N 2

S68 LORD amesfort's family.

from the lips of one against whose boundless
empire he had ceased to struggle. Her down-
cast eyes, her pale cheek, told the tale of weak-
ness and irresolution.

" Isabella thinks,'' he said calmly to her,
" that our dream has lasted too long. She
wishes me to go. Have you courage to await
your Lord's return ?"

"Nay, spare me, my own Adolphus : you
know I am unable to decide any thing."

" Could you be happy far away ? — far from
home, from friends, from your native land,
from all sacred ties ? Could you part with this
dear boy, nor regret the wealth, the honours
you abandon .? Say so, my beloved, and none
shall interrupt our felicity : our life would be
too short for our love. We must part now, or
never!"

" We cannot part now.''''
* *' Then never shall we, my own only trea-
sure."

Lady Amesfort struggled to free herself
from his embrace, feebly exclaiming, " No, no.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 269

Montresor ; I am not so far lost yet ! For my-
self, indeed, I have nothing to regret : — a me-
lancholy fate ; an unloving husband, who would
scarce discover my absence; rank that fatigues
me, by keeping me ever in representation with
people I do not love, and who love not me ; a
cold unpitying world, whose scorn I could
despise as I do its favour. I have on earth
but one tie, one feeling ; but it is not so with
you. I know you, Adolphus — time might de-
prive me of every vestige of beauty ; age might
bow me down ; nay, if it were possible, even
love might expire within us — but you would
not abandon me. For my sake, you would be-
come an alien to your home; and your friends,
your talents, your energies, would lie dormant
in a retirement we could not dare to call ho-
nourable : — and this would be my doing !
Adolphus, I could not bear it — the very thought
would kill me."

" And do you then think," he cried warmly,
" I leave behind any thing half so dear as you "^
I should make no sacrifice. I am weary of my

270 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

life, except as your love gives it value. I have
sought pleasure in study, but that has ceased to
interest me ; I have pursued it in dissipation,
yet it fled me ever : I placed it in friendship,
and my friend is false. Love alone has never
betrayed, never disappointed me ! — it made me
suffer, for I thought it unattainable ; it has
ceased to be so, and I am blest."

" But not happy,"' replied the Countess,
bursting into tears ; " Oh no, you would not
be happy ! I could rejoice in the very shame
that pursued me, since it would link you more
closely to me : I could not blush at a disgrace
that cast me on the mercy of my lover: I should
not feel humbled by any thing that proved my
devotion to him, for whose sake all things
would be sweet. You would be at once the
excuse and the reward of my guilt, and I could
almost glory in it ! But you would not feel as
I should. You would not triumph in your con-
quest, but mourn over it. When the censorious
scoffed me, — when the virtuous passed me by,
you would writhe in agony. You would see

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 271

that all your devotion failed to raise me in the
eyes of others, and you would forget that it
was every thing in mine/'

For a moment, Adolphus could not speak —
he could only kiss off the tears that deluged the
pale cheek of the speaker. Her words had
pierced like daggers to his heart, and carried
instant conviction of their truth. From that
moment he felt he could not be happy ; but she
might at least. He had torn her from every
duty ; he had destroyed for her every comfort ;
and could he desert her ? Could he cast her
from him back into the wilderness he had made
for her ? Could he abandon her, while his pre-
sence could soothe, — his love bless her ? Im-
possible ! Montresor did not recede, but the
icy fang of remorse fastened on his heart ; and
whilst he tried to comfort the weeping Countess,
he could scarce forbear exclaiming aloud, " It is
the beginning of a long life of punishment.''

At last, after a silence which seemed as
though it would never be broken, he said firmly,
" We have decided ; — let us then quit Lord

272 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

Amesfort's house as soon as we can, and arrange
our departure speedily, or his return may frus-
trate our measures. — These baubles,"' he added,
smiling sadly, as he unclasped a bracelet of va-
lue, " you will leave behind, — you do not require
them to make you lovely or beloved ; and you
will soon be a poor man's wife.""

" But he will not be poorer on my account,'"
she answered hastily, while a ray of pleasure
struggled to find place on her harassed coun-
tenance. " You know, I was an heiress, and am
independent still. Why do you look so mise-
rable ? Is your pride hurt ? Oh, Adolphus,
you do not love as I do !''

Adolphus did love as passionately, as ge-
nerously as she did ; but he was younger than
she was : in the eyes of the world, — the selfish,
calculating world, — he should seem to gain by her
dishonour ! Was guilt, then, become a traffic
to him ? The thought was torture — and yet it
must be borne, and borne alone ; for how
could she sympathize with him, or enter into a
feeling so purely selfish, — a feeling that owed

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 273

its bitterness to the opinion of others ; which
opinion she had set at defiance, though he could
not. Lady Amesfort had given up receiving
visits from the moment she first knew of Adol-
phus's illness and danger ; but Miss Albany
had always had free admittance, and she ap-
peared now to the embarrassment and surprise
of those whom she visited. She embraced Lady
Amesfort as usual, but ^athout noticing Mon-
tresor ; she asked after the child ; and then, as
gently as she could, announced the expected
arrival of the Earl, as to take place in a day or
two. Consternation was very visible on the
faces of Montresor and Lady Amesfort ; for they
had not looked for him so soon, and they
said so.

" I know you did not,"" repHed Isabella
coldly ; " but I wrote to him the last day
I called here, and found how necessary his
presence was.''

Lady Amesfort, between alarm and indig-
nation, could not find words to express her-
self ; but Montresor haughtily exclaimed, " And
N 5

^74 LORD amesfort's family.

by what right, Miss Albany, did you presume
to interfere in the affairs of the Countess ?
Was she accountable to you ? and do you re-
pay her attachment by sacrificing her to her
husband's resentment ?"

" I did not speak to you,'' replied Isabella,
with a swift glance of contempt ; then turning
to the Countess, she implored her, by every
argument she could think of, to suffer herself
to be saved. She spoke low and steadily, but
not without feeling. Once Lady Amesfort
seemed shaken, and a sudden ray of hope
arose in the breast of her friend. The child
entered at this moment. Isabella sprung for-
ward, and taking its little hands, which she
put up in the attitude of supplication, she
knelt beside him, with difficulty articulating,
" Implore your mother not to abandon you ; —
not to disgrace herself, for your sake."

Alarmed at an energy so unusual in the
sober Miss Albany, — shocked at the misery
that seemed to surround him, the boy clung to
his mother, and wept in silence.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 275

" My child,'' cried his almost convulsed pa-
rent, "it is I who implore you — do not forget
me : when others blame me, remember how
dearly I loved you,^that my flight did not in-
jure you — that I shall think of you, and pray
for you, though I may never see you more."

The boy ceased to weep : he looked up and
said steadily — " I will not leave you ; take me
with you.''

" Alas ! I cannot — I dare not," cried the
frantic Countess. — " Isabella ! what have I
done to you, that you should torture me thus .^"

" If you suffer so bitterly already," replied
Isabella, " what will you do hereafter ? One
more effort, and you burst the bands of sin for
ever ; it is not yet too late."

" It is too late !" cried the Countess, in the
accent of desperation, and rushed out of the
room. Isabella leaned for a moment against
the chimneypiece, and when she uncovered her
face to ring the bell for her carriage, even
Montresor, angry as he was, could not help
pitying her. He felt that she would come no

276 LORD amesfort's family.

more, — that he should never see her again ; and
he longed to recommend his sister to her care,
but he had not courage to address her. He
remembered at this moment what she had said
in the beginning of their acquaintance, " If
Lord De Calmer does not marry Emily now,
he is not likely to do so hereafter ;" and he felt
a vague hope that she might yet bring about
the marriage.

" Isabella,"' he said solemnly, " by our for-
mer friendship, let me beseech you to look on
me now, as if I were dead : you will then con-
demn me less, and pity me more. I ask, how-
ever, nothing for myself, — I know I am un-
worthy to live in your remembrance; — but my
sister. You loved Emily, and she has not
forfeited your esteem ; she never will. I leave
her in your charge ; may you manage her con-
cerns better than I have done ! This is the
ast letter I received from De Calmer, and
I fear—"

He paused ; and Isabella, who had walked to-
wards the door, turned round suddenly: "Lord

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 277

De Calmer,'' she said, without looking at him,
" has taken a house and lives in strict seclusion.
He has given up Emily ; he has broken her
heart ; and even if she lives, she will not recover
it. But these are trifles : the death of our
friends may be borne, — it is their unworthiness
which is bitter.'' — And, with these words of ill
omen, she closed the door after her ; nor had
Montresor resolution enough to follow her and
ask a single question. They did not, however,
as she had half hoped, operate to detain him a
single moment longer in England. He could
return to Emily ; but Lady Amesfort he must
place immediately out of the reach of her
husband, and he lost no time in making the
necessary arrangements. The agitation and
fatigue which he underwent brought on a re-
turn of his fever ; but he had no time to bestow
upon it, and, weak and ill as he was, he flattered
himself he should sail from Portsmouth on the
very day Lord Amesfort would reach London.
But Isabella was as vigilant and active as him-
self ; and about an hour before the carriage that

278 LORD amesfort's family.

was to take them out of town, was ready to
convey them, the Earl himself, unannounced,
entered the apartment, where the last directions
for the departure were giving and executing.
Adolphus was writing with his back to the door,
and did not look up till the Countess shrieked.
He turned round, and grew pale on beholding
his guardian. This, however, was not the time
to shrink ; and walking steadily across the room,
he said, "I am sorry to be the person, my
Lord, to explain all this confusion ; but, what-
ever may be your opinion of me, I rely on your
delicacy for not detaining Lady Amesfort, when
she voluntarily relinquishes your name and pro-
tection."

" You are right. Sir,"*"* said the Earl, with an
energy of voice and manner, of which he seemed
incapable : "I shall not detain Lady Amesfort
in my house ; but I shall see that she does not
leave it with you. — Follow me, Aurelia — nay,
instantly." The Countess recoiled as her hus-
band approached; and throwing herself into
Montresor's arms, clung to him in terror*

LORD amesfort's famh.y. 279

" If you would take her from me," he cried
fiercely, ' you must first take my life."

Horror and anguish, amounting to madness,
were depicted on the powerful features of Lord
Amesfort. " Rash boy," he cried, " will no-
thing unfasten your guilty hold ? I would have
spared you," he continued, with a sudden burst
of tenderness, " for you are dear to me —
Heaven knows how dear ! — but you will rush
headlong on. — Adolphus ! believe me — I speak
not idle words, — guilt is an undying poison that
will corrupt every pleasure."

" I believe you," said Adolphus, with despe-
rate steadiness ; " but the die is cast."

" Then hear mel" loudly exclaimed the Earl.
"I do not throw the thunderbolt ; it is you
who bring it on your own head. It is no com-
mon infamy in which you are about to plunge.
It is your father's wife you would seduce !"

Montresor reeled back ; his distending eye-
balls seemed ready to start out of his head ; his
white lips quivered, and his teeth ground
against each other. He gasped for breath —

S80 LORD AMESFORT's FAMILY.

then going close up to the Earl, he said, in a
tone of horrible stillness, " Monster ! was it
your hand that poured out the phial of wrath
on the head of my mother ? Did you curse me
with life, that I might grow up a blacker
wretch than there are words to name me ?
Have you set the seal of disgrace upon us, and
enveloped us all, the innocent with the guilty,
in one mighty ruin ? Is it for this your nephew
has broken the heart of your daughter ? Is it
for this . . ." Montresor could not articulate
another word, but he continued to gaze on his
father; and the wild fixed glare of his eye
showed the chaos of an imsettling mind. The
Earl felt the danger to his reason of suffering
him to dwell upon these accumulated images of
horror, and gently taking his hand, he pointed
to Lady Amesfort. She had fainted, and lay
still pale and deathlike. The effect was instan-
taneous on her lover. He uttered a cry so
wild, so piercing, that his father shuddered, in
doubt if it was not the note of madness. Adol-
phus flung himself on the floor beside her. He

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 281

watched the ghastlv hue vanish from her face ;
he listened to the long labouring sigh ^vith
which she returned to the consciousness of woe;
and bending over her, he said quietly, " Poor
unfortunate ! she lives !"

He arose, and moved towards the door. As
he passed his father, he paused. Lord Amesfort
half veiled his face with his hand ; but his atti-
tude denoted such hopeless overpowering an-
guish, that Adolphus for a moment mourned
only for his father.

" There is enough of guilt and misery,'' he
said, in a stifled voice, " but there might have
been more. The world would call your wife
unsullied, for it is our hearts only that have
sinned."

Lord Amesfort felt that he sought to console,
not to appease him ; and bowing his head, he
repUed, " It is well for you, my son ; for me
there is nothing well.'' The bruised heart of
Adolphus gave one bound of filial affection —
but he thought of his mother, and it was check-
ed. On the stairs he found the child watching

28^ LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY,

for him. A sudden impulse, that he was in no
condition to resist or define, urged him to seize
the boy, and make him the partner of his flight.
It was easily executed, for the carriage waited,
and his young brother followed him into it
without hesitation. With almost delirious im-
patience, Montresor urged on the horses. It
was night before they reached Portsmouth, and
a fresh wind made it advisable to remain in the
town ; but Adolphus, madly bent on securing
his prize, put off in the first boat that would
take him, and joined the vessel in which he had
secured a passage for himself and Lady Ames-
fort.

The little Algernon loved his brother, and
saw nothing wonderful in his sudden journey.
When Adolphus set his foot on the coast of
France, his nervous dread of being pursued
subsided, and he began to ask himself why he
had caused new anxieties to his father and his
unfortunate wife. But his mind was yet fever-
ed ; he could not think of giving up the boy ;
but he sent back his servant to England, to

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 283

assure the Amesforts of its safety. At the ex-
pected time the servant returned, with a note
from Lord Amesfort. Adolphus shook in every
nerve as he tore it open — the words swam be-
fore his dazzled eyes, and he read with diffi-
culty : —

" MY DEAR ADOLPHUS,
" I am glad you have your young brother
with you, as nothing could contribute more to
preserve Lady Amesforf s character than prov-
ing to the world that you and I are not at va-
riance. She is in a dreadful state of mind ; but
she will recover. I shall take her out of town
immediately. I feel little disposed to resent
her infatuation ; and if I did, I have no right to
do so. It was not wonderful that the heart I
neglected to win, should become the property
of another ; nor, alas ! is it new to me, that
passion is sometimes stronger than principle.
Henry is still in the North : he loves you and
your sister as much as ever ; and time, I hope,
may conquer his prejudices. It was very bitter

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

to see him shrink from her whom he had
chosen, because she was my daughter. But I
early poisoned the draught of hfe, and I must
drink it to its dregs.

Yours,

Amesfort."

Montresor felt his very soul ache at the
wretchedness which was not only so strongly
felt at present, but must for ever continue to be
so. But again in spirit he turned to his be-
loved mother, and he felt that he could not for-
give Lord Amesfort. Then he dwelt on his
own fate. — " Why," thought he, " did they
conceal my birth from me ? Was it to spare
my mother or myself? She is too humble, too
really penitent, to wish to usurp the esteem of
others. Oh, it was for me alone ! They
thought me jealous of honour — impatient of
disgrace ; they felt the blight would fall on my
soul. They would have spared me — and I
would not be spared. The pride that was born
with me, that grew with my growth, and

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 285

Strengthened with my years; what is it now
but a glaring inconsistency ? Do I not draw
my breath as it were upon sufferance ? — Yes, I
will renounce society, in which I have no foot-
ing ; the world, in which I have no interest ;
my country, for I have no country. Its laws
protect not me. I stand alone. Alas ! I have
sharers in my humiliation, — beings feebler
than I, that cling to me, and whom I cannot
protect.'^

INIontresor indeed felt as if his haughty spirit
was trampled in the dust. He who had been
so indulgent, so mild, to all beneath him, was
growing captious and exacting. He started
from imaginary insults, and saw it was his own
wounded mind that goaded him. At first it
was a relief to him to scorn a world he expect-
ed would scorn him. He revenged himself on
it by the keenest feeling of animosity, but he
met none to injure or neglect him, and he soon
learned to despise none but himself. His
calmer moments had always been devoted to the
instruction of the blooming Algernon, and he

286 LORD amesfort's family.

promised himself that, if education could avail,
his brother should not inherit the foibles so in-
herent in the EarFs character and his own.
" He shall not," thought Montresor, " admire
what is beautiful till he knows it is good ; he
shall not set an arbitrary value on any thing,
because it suits his temper and gratifies his
feelings ; he shall not devote himself to others
because it flatters the generosity of his nature,
but because it is a duty, a cold unsatisfactory
duty, to sacrifice ourselves systematically to
those with whom we live."' Montresor would
break oiF his ruminations, and smile in bitter-
ness at himself — " Who am I, that I should
guide others ?" And with this new feeling, he
relinquished his plans and systems in despair.

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. S87

CHAPTER XX.

If the wounded feelings of Adolphus Mon-
tresor stung him to madness, or crushed him in
despair, she who had shared in his wanderings
was scarce less deserving of compassion. The
shock, the separation, the terror which her hus-
band's presence inspired her with, were too
much for a mind fevered by passion and ex-
hausted with grief. Sometimes she struggled
against the imbecile torpor that hung upon her;
sometimes she took refuge, in her mental and
bodily weakness, from the sharp pangs of re-
flection ; sometimes she forgot the cause of her
grief, and was conscious only of some indefinite,
restless pain, — some vague, confused notion of
unexpiated guilt, which her mind was not clear

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

enough to investigate, nor strong enough to
shake off. By degrees her memory recovered
its power, her understanding its tone. She
awoke, by a slow and painful process, to the
full knowledge of her situation ; and as soon as
she could reason on any thing, or feel for any
body but herself, her astonishment at her hus-
band"'s conduct knew no bounds. She could
not suppose he would forgive her, — that he
could ever care for her : she looked upon the
absence of her child as a punishment, and
refrained from asking about him.

She wondered what could be Lord Ames-
forf s reason for saving her so anxiously from
a grave, where alone she felt her ^hame and
sorrows could be concealed. She sometimes
thought he must have some refined plan of
vengeance to be executed in time, and almost
wished she might have some outward suffering
as well as the inward one that consumed her.
In his presence, she felt like the malefactor be-
fore his judges ; and the respite was harder to
bear than could be the punishment ; yet, as her

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 289

mind recovered its vigour, she lost the nervous
dread that made her shrink from his very step
as though it were the harbinger of death, and
would gaze fearlessly on him, labouring to
comprehend a gentleness so unnatural. His
consistency puzzled her. He was neither stern
nor affectionate ; but cold and vigilant, as if
he performed a task in watching over her, for
which he was accountable to some one. They
never remained long any where ; and the car-
riage, in which she travelled alone with her
maid, was arranged with the care and attention
to her comfort necessary for an invahd.

Once or twice he changed her attendant with-
out comment ; but he took care that she should
be waited upon with more respect than he ex-
acted for himself. His carriage was always
within a few yards of hers, so that escape was
impossible. She felt like a child in leading-
strings. But though this authority met her
at every step, it did not press upon her. She
could not forget he was her master; but, at
least, he was not a harsh one. This despotism

VOL. I. O

^90 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

was not natural to him, or why had he never
exercised it before ? " I do not deserve that so
much trouble should be taken about me,'' would
she say to herself; but she had no desire to
contend with the bars of her prison. She was
not by nature the timid creature who could kiss
the rod; but her soul was humbled by the
consciousness of transgression, and her spirit
subdued by the weight of misery. She had
never disliked her husband, and she felt un-
feigned gratitude to him for having saved her
from the fate she was preparing for herself.
The bitterness of penitence was indeed keen;
but to repent an evil intention was lighter than
to repent an evil act ; and she could have
blessed him for having saved her the additional
pang.

Many months had been already spent in wan-
dering, when Lord Amesfort took a house for
some weeks by the sea-side. He sometimes
took her upon the water. He did not consult
her; and the year before she would have re-
sisted, for she was afraid of the sea ; but it is

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 291

only those who are at ease who have leisure for
fancies, and the Countess got into the yacht,
which was before her windows, not indeed with
any belief in its safety, but without any emotion
of dread. A strong gale one day sprung up
unexpectedly, and Lady Amesfort looked calm-
ly on the raging billows, in which she expected
to be engulphed, and almost wondered at the
eagerness and activity displayed to meet the
danger and overcome it. It was quite dark
when they got into the boat, that tossed high
and low on the foaming surge ; and the Coun-
tess, who, during many hours of peril, had re-
mained in a state of quietude approaching to
apathy, could not restrain her tears when she
felt herself folded in her husband's arms, to
guard her from being washed overboard.

" Leave me," she cried feebly ; " I do not
deserve your care. I have no quarrel with
death."

" Perhaps both of us may perish," calmly
replied the Earl ; " if so, let us at least die in
charity with each other. We have not done
o 2

292 LORD amesfort's family.

our duty to one another. Pardon me, Aurelia,
as I have long forgiven you.*"

" Oh ! what have I to pardon !"' cried the
Countess, covering her face as she spoke.

" If I had not neglected you, would you
have deserted me ? If I had loved you, would
you have loved another .?""

" God knows," replied the shuddering wife :
" this I know, that I alone am to blame. I
sought the love of your son before I knew I
should give him mine. I urged our flight — I — ''"'

" Be calm, Aurelia, I conjure you ; if not for
your sake, for mine. My shattered nerves and
bleeding heart are unequal to these scenes : it
is therefore I speak so little, — not from un-
kindness.""

" What," thought the Countess, when, wet
and weary, she got at last to her solitary apart-
ment, " was he wretched ? — and when I might
have soothed his grief, did I inhumanly add to
it ? He was right not to love the giddy, fri-
volous girl, who shared in the splendour of his
situation, but forgot to be the partner of his

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 293

grief. Perhaps I might have won his heart : —
I did not even ask if he had one ; and now the
time is past."' Either the agitation of these
thoughts, or the fatigue of the expedition, af-
fected Lady Amesforfs health so far as to
require medical assistance. Although she had
often thought herself dying of late, and was
subject to frequent faintings and low fever, her
husband had never called in the faculty ; but
now judging the disease might be bodily, he
had recourse to it ; and, much sooner than he
expected, the invahd left her bed for the sofa in
the drawing-room. The kindness with which
her recovery was greeted, was very painful to
the unhappy Countess. She was used to her
husband's coldness, and saw in it no new re-
proach ; but in his softened manner, in his tone
of affection, she traced a hkeness at which she
shuddered. When the Earl tried to smile,
when he looked on her with interest, it was the
image of his son, and she felt that punishment
was at her right hand, let her fly from it as she
would.

294} LORD amesfort's family.

About this time. Lord Amesfort received a very
spirited sketch of his boy which Adolphus sent,
as a good Hkeness. He placed it in the apart-
ment of the Countess, who wept and prayed
beside it during the night, and confirmed her-
self in the idea, it was all she should ever see
of her son. " Yet,'' murmured she, " he for-
gave me ; but he does not think me worthy to
see my Algernon — and he is right.""'

Lord Amesfort was grieved to perceive the
evil his present had produced. " I thought to
give you pleasure," he said ; " are you not glad
to know our child is well T''

Lady Amesfort was pale already, but she
grew whiter still, and wildly clasping her hands,
she threw herself at her husband's feet.
" Have mercy !" she cried ; " do not kill me
with a kindness I do not deserve ; but tell me
where my Algernon is — tell me if he is suffered
to breathe the same air with his guilty mother.''

Lord Amesfort groaned in agony; the last
time he had seen a woman, young and beauti-
ful, kneel to him in wretchedness, was ever

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 295

present to liis mind, — it was liis own devoted,
dearly loved Emily; and though his heart
seemed scarred, he could not bear the scars to
be touched. He trembled as he raised his wife,
and scarce had power to say, " If you knew
how you hui't me, Aurelia, you would learn to
exercise a Httle more self-control. My sons are
together, and I am content it should be so,
since it cannot injure the one, and may benefit
the other. When Adolphus wearies of ram-
bling, he will bring back his brother ; and if he
does not, I will go and fetch him."

He paused ; but seeing his wife stand, over-
come with the allusion to Montresor, and bowed
down with burning shame, he added, in a tone
of sympathy, " I implore you, try to regulate
your feehngs better. We cannot always lead
this Hfe ; and when you appear again in the
world, I must not have it guessed that you are
wretched. Self-reproach is hard to bear ; yet
I have borne it for many years, and so must

you."

" This, then, is the punishment allotted me,"

296 LORD amesfort's family.

thought the Countess, when left alone. " I
must boldly put on the mask of innocence, and
stand among the wise and good, feeling that I
do not belong to them. When the voice of sin
and misery is raised to me, I must seem to turn
aside — I, who am more miserable, and far more
guilty ! I shall listen to eulogiums, while my
heart will bear witness to me that I do not de-
serve them. I shall mingle with my fellow-
creatures, shrinking from their usurped esteem,
and blushing at approbation, which is con-
ferred only because they do not know me. I
shall smile, too, for so wills my husband.
Good heavens ! will so wretched a mockery de-
ceive any one ! for how many years may I be
doomed to play this false part.?" — and the Coun-
tess thought, with horror, how young she still
was. Her repentance, however, was sincere,
and expiation is its test. She had nothing left
to do, but to obey her husband's wishes ; and
she seriously laboured to acquire that mastery
over herself, which was necessary to enable her,
however inadequately, to fulfil them. She

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 297

forced herself to address the sailors, or the poor
people, whom she met ; she asked them ques-
tions, and tried to listen to their answers. At
first, the words died on her lips, and she hastily
threw down her veil to conceal the starting
tears ; but her husband saw her struggles, and
appreciated them : what would she not have
done to gain one step, however low, in his good
opinion ? The rich reward spurred her some-
times on to exertions beyond her strength.
M^hen she found a renewal of her weakness, her
soul seemed to die within her. She would re-
proach herself for requiting so ill his un-
wearied indulgence : she would long to have
some other task set her, that would not exceed
her powers.

" Aurelia,'"' said the Earl one morning,
" there is a trial awaiting your firmness. Show
me that I have not given you credit for more
than you possess f' — and he put into her hands
a letter from Algernon. It was written on such
large lines, that it chd not contain many words,
but a thick mist spread itself over the eyes of
o 5

298 LORD amesfort's family.

the Countess, and she could not read them ;
she felt very faint, but she would not give way.
She turned towards the open window; she
forced a few drops of water down her throat,
though it seemed to close against them ; she
covered her eyes till her head was less dizzy —
but it would not do. " Keep it for me," said
she at last, " till I can read it :"" and though
the hand that held it out trembled violently,
she spoke distinctly, and did not shed a tear.
Lord Amesfort was satisfied with the effort ;
he left her the letter, — assuring her that she
would find the benefit of her combat, and that
the habit of conquering herself, once acquired,
would spare her many an unavailing pang.
His wife received not the consolation he sought
to inspire her with : she had but one idea, " He
chooses it," — and to this she sacrificed herself,
without a hope that present travail would pro-
duce to her any future peace.

It was some time after this, that Montresor
found among his English packets a letter from
Lord De Calmer. It was one of the enclosures

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 299

from Lord Amesfort ; for, had it been directed
by himself, he was pretty well aware, it would
have been returned unopened. As it was,
Adolphus felt strongly inclined to put it in a
blank sheet of paper and direct it back ; but he
did not even know where he was; and after
much fluctuation, he read : —

" Do not throw this from you, my dear Adol-
phus, the moment you recognize the writing.
I confess, it would be no more than I deserve.
I have been unjust and weak; but I have never
ceased to love you, or to prize your friendship
as I ought. Do not, then, tell me I have for-
feited it by my conduct. I would not have
dared to claim it, had I not come to the reso-
lution of sacrificing all my absurd prejudices at
that shrine where vou know mv heart has long
been surrendered. To-morrow I set out for
Wales ; and if my beloved Emily can pardon so
protracted a journey, I shall soon hail for my
brother an old friend, though a new-found
cousin. It is so long since you have known

300 LORD amesfort's family.

any thing about me, that I must take up my
explanation from the moment of my return
from Spain. My tedious weakness, as you
must have seen, alone delayed my journey to
Wales at that time. It is a very foolish thing,
I begin to think, to consult any one about one's
concerns. If I had not talked openly to you of
my attachment, I should not have left Eng-
land without being engaged to your sister,
and then I should have felt bound to fulfil that
engagement, and many a heart-ache it would
have saved me. If I had not spoken to my
uncle, he would not have said any thing to me,
and you should have danced at my wedding
long ago. My evil stars settled it otherwise.

" I pass over my conversations with the
Earl, as much in regard to my own feelings, as
to yours ; they certainly made me very mise-
rable, and the more so, from the bar which
your ignorance on the subject placed between
us. My uncle absolutely forbad my disclosing
to you our relationship, and I had no right
over his secrets. Yet, how was I to explain to

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 301

you the inconsistency of my being one day
ready to fly to Emily, though I was scarce able
to stand, and the next doing my best to forget
her ? I knew, indeed, you had generosity
enough to pity and excuse my inconstancy ; but
I was not inconstant, and I could not live with
you with a veiled heart. So I avoided you
from weakness ; for if I could have determined
upon any thing — have traced any plan of con-
duct, and steadily pursued it, I need not have
given up my friend in the base and brutal
manner in which I did it. With any self-
command, I could have been with you as
usual, upon all subjects save one ; but that
one was so interesting to both of us, that to
avoid it always, was more than I had resolution
to say I could do. To drown thought, I
plunged into dissipation ; I threw away on
things that gave me no pleasure more than the
half of my fortune. I drank, I gamed, I went
on the turf ; but I met neither you nor Emily,
except in my dreams, and they reproached me
with deserting the only things I could love.

302 LORD amesfort's family.

" My uncle watched over me, and when I had
tried what extravagance and folly could do for
me, he led me gently back to reason and em-
ployment. I was not happy, but I thought I
had decided. I lived alone with Nature, and
tried to school my own heart, and clear up the
mists that obscured my understanding. I fan-
cied myself calm ; it was only a trance, from
which a letter from Isabella Albany roused me.
Every thing she said was, as usual, clear and
forcible. I followed her advice in seeking out
my uncle and his unfortunate wife. I would
not make your heart bleed afresh, by trying to
describe what mine suffered at beholding her.
At first, the sight of me, as connected with
other times, threatened to destroy all the advan-
tage she had reaped from the incessant care of
her husband ; but, after a time, I thought her
relieved by our conversations. We concealed
nothing from one another, and she implored me
to discard prejudices from which I had already
suffered so much, and which perhaps had given
Emily as much pain as myself. This thought

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 303

determined me ; and before you receive this, I
shall know if I may yet hope for a happiness
with which I have been so long trifling. I do
not desire that you should write to me ; but
wiYi. you not to your sister ? Isabella tells me,
Mrs. Montresor has heard but once from you :
surely yours is not the hand to punish her.
" Your affectionate friend and cousin,

"De Calmer."

Many and various Avere the feelings that con-
tended for a mastery in the breast of Adolphus,
whilst he perused this explanatory epistle ; those
of pleasure, at last, predominated : but even the
joy of ]Montresor was connected with grief and
anxiety. He felt that De Calmer was, after
all, acting against his own feelings and princi-
ples ; that he had been swayed by others to re-
turn to Emily, and might some day repent it.
He could not think, without emotion, that it
was to Lady Amesfort he should be principally
indebted for his sister's establishment in life.
In that establishment, it was Emily's happiness

304 LORD amesfort's family.

alone he had once thought of: now that her du-
bious situation was known to him, her respect-
ability seemed, in a great measure, to hang
upon it. Her reputation, in the delicate predi-
cament in which she stood, was indeed as a thin
vapour that would melt away before the first
breath of slander, and the wounded pride of her
brother made him impatient to marry her out
of it, to any one almost, that could give her a
certain name and a fixed footing in society.
Upon the whole, he was content to rejoice, that
one ray of comfort would fall on his mother ;
and, for the first time, for many years, he ad-
dressed her in the form of congratulation.

The playful Algernon, who interrupted him at
this occupation, soon detected the unwonted
smile hovering round his mouth and lurking
in his eye, and he eagerly took advantage of it
to prefer a request. There was a dance on the
soft turf, beneath the spreading alders, in ho-
nour of a village lass who was that day affianced
to a neighbouring peasant. The young girl was
portioned by Madame De Saumur, with whose

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 305

family Adolphus had been unable to avoid a
slight acquaintance ; and that lady, having met
Algernon, commissioned him to fetch Montresor
to the fete. It \yas a brilliant summer's eve-
ning, and Adolphus had not the heart to disap-
point his brother, though even rural festivity
had become more than distasteful to him. He
went ; he even danced with the affianced
bride, at the request of her patroness. Madame
De Saumur in vain rallied him on his joyless
air, and asked if even the pure climate of south-
ern France had no effect upon him, and if he
was too much of an Englishman to condescend
to be amused. He answered courteously, and
smiled as he turned from her ; but she felt it
was not the smile of hilarity, and she blessed
her stars that she was not born in England.

Lord Amesfort had empowered people to sell
out of the army for his son, and he now pro-
posed to him to embrace some other profession,
in which his talents might bring him fame. He
offered him his powerful interest to advance him
in the diplomatic line, for which his education

306 LORD amesfort's family.

had particularly fitted him. He pointed out,
with that persuasive eloquence which none pos-
sessed like him, the folly of burying himself in
a selfish retreat; he tried to excite a laudable
ambition in his palsied mind ; he insinuated
that, having his name to establish, and his for-
tune to make, by his own exertions, unaided by
the ordinary advantages with which others were
born, he could not afford to waste his best years
in idleness. Montresor knew his father was
right ; but the wounds were yet bare in his sen-
sitive breast ; his strength was wasted, and he
looked in vain for the energy and self command,
that could grapple with the disgrace that had
fastened on him, wrestle with the world, and
force it to retract its unfounded scorn. " No,^**
thought he, " it will not be ; the stain is upon
me, and, if others forget it, I shall feel it still.''
He was doomed to feel it yet more keenly, for
hitherto his sufferings on that head sprung
from his imagination : he did not guess how
soon the actual proof would come.

Colonel and Mrs. Dessamere had squandered

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 307

away so much money, that they found it neces-
sary to go abroad to economize. Their eco-
nomy on the Continent was very like their eco-
nomy in their native Island ; but they escaped
long bills for the present ; they amused them-
selves, and they had the pleasure of talking of
their prudence in the vigorous retrenchment
they had effected. Their road lay through the
romantic village where Adolphus had for some
time fixed his residence ; they were delighted to
find a relation and a countryman, — for at that
time all France was not overrun with English,
as it has been since. They remained some time
in that part of the province ; for there were
many things to see, and many people to visit ;
Augusta's former residence abroad having pro-
cured her a variety of acquaintance, who gladly
furnished her with letters of introduction to
people of any note.

Adolphus was so frequently seen riding and
walking with the Dessameres, that he gradually
found liimself caught by the current of society,
and frequently unable to escape the polite im-

308 LORD amesfort's family.

portunities of the neighbouring gentlemen to
meet his cousins at their house. The handsome
Enghshman, as he was called, soon attracted
universal notice. His polished manners, his
general information, his unvarying sadness,
which appeared yet more in his smile than in
his abstracted silence, produced a wonderful
sensation. The learned men referred to him in
matters of science, the unlearned in matters
of taste, the old ladies consulted him about
their complaints, and the damsels studied
" Young's Night Thoughts," that they might
lay in a store of fine gloom for their conversa-
tions with the melancholy Englishman. Wher-
ever Adolphus had been placed, circumstances
had always arisen to give him a peculiar inte-
rest in the eyes of others. Accustomed to be
caressed and courted, he saw nothing singular
in the attention paid him by his new acquaint-
ance ; and would not, perhaps, have marked
their extent, had they not been suddenly Avith-
drawn. Mrs. Dessamere had, very unintention-
ally, been the cause of the change he soon per-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 309

ceived. With her usual giddiness, she had said,
in a numerous company, where she had been
persecuted with questions about Adolphus, that
his mother was her father's first-cousin ; but
that who his father was, she could not say,
havinor never either seen or heard of him ; un-
less indeed they chose to take the scandalous
chronicle for gospel, which gave him Lord
Amesfort for a father. Whisperings instantly
ran round the room, coteries of decorous pro-
Aincial ladies formed themselves rapidly to
take into consideration the propriety of holding
anv further communication with the young fo-
reigner. The prejudice against illegitimacy is
much strono^er in France than in Enojland ; and
although some young people, more liberal or
more compassionate, tried to stem the torrent,
the veto was agreed upon by the majority, and
the rest consented to the interdict passed on
the stranger.

Totally unconscious of all this, Montresor
spent his time much as he had done before the
Dessameres fell in his wav, rather glad that

SIO LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

their departure had restored him to solitude.
The arrival of some comedians in the neigh-
bouring city set every one in motion; and as
Algernon begged very hard to go and see them
perform, and his brother did not like to trust him
with a servant, or indeed out of his own sight,
he appeared on the third night of their perform-
ance. There were many people in the house, with
whom Adolphus had become slightly acquaint-
ed ; but, as they did not appear to see him, he
was better pleased to remain unnoticed. To Ma-
dame de Saumur, indeed, from whom he had re-
ceived much civility, he bowed on entering ; but
the distant manner in which his bow was return-
ed, gave him no encouragement to join her party,
had he been so disposed, which indeed he was
not. There was nothing very attractive in the
play or the actors; and probably, had both been
better, they would have amused Adolphus as
little. Towards the end of the entertainment
a young girl came on, who was received with
evident disapprobation. The actress was terri-
fied ; yet she endeavoured in calmer moments

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 311

to begin her part, but was as frequently stop-
ped. The Englishman was roused by the cla-
mour, and, taking pity on the youth and ap-
parent timidity of the girl, asked those around
him why she was condemned unlieard. He
could not gain a very distinct account ; every
one spoke at once ; but one thing seemed agreed
upon bv all, — that it was private resentment
that raised the outcry, which had nothing to do
with the talents or good conduct of the actress
in her profession. ]Montresor thought this
equally unjust and barbarous; and the tears of
the unfortunate performer having extorted a
few feeble plaudits, he strongly supported
them, and even stood up in the box to give his
applause with more effect.

The clamorous party now turned their resent-
ment from the fair one to her unexpected cham-
pion, and the scene of confusion that ensued
forced the female part of the audience to with-
draw. Adolphus, who had no desire to become a
prominent character in a playhouse row at
any time, but particularly when he was wanted

312 LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY.

to take care of his brother, followed their steps.
He found Madame de Saumur and her
daughters waiting for their carriage, which
could not draw up, owing to the bustle and
confusion which had spread into the street.
Leaving Algernon in their care, he forced his
way through the mob to seek it out, and see
if a little order could be restored. He succeed-
ed with some difficulty, and was handing the
ladies into their carriage, when a gentleman of
their party, coming out, pushed rudely past
him, muttering some words which, to judge
by the tone, were not meant to be conciliatory.
He was gone before Montresor could under-
stand the drift of the incivility, or quite make
up his mind as to its having been purposely di-
rected to himself. He did not remain long in
suspense; for the next morning, as he was walk-
ing with his gun in his hand over the Saumur
property, Algernon following him in great tri-
umph at being mounted on a pony, he fell in
with a party of sportsmen, one of whom asked
him roughly, by whose leave he was carrying a

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 313

gun there. Montresor almost immediately re-
cognized in the speaker the gentleman of the
night before, and little disposed to brook in-
sult, he returned the question by another.
" By what authority do you ask me ?''^

" I do not,""' contemptuously returned the
other, " give an account of myself to my in-
feriors."

" Nor I, to any one," rejoined Adolphus ;
'* particularly when I do not know who does
me the honour of asking it."

The Frenchman sprung forward, and with
action of haughty insolence, exclaimed, " I am
the Marquis de Yivier — now pray. Sir, who
are you ?''''

" One who cannot acknowledge in M. de
Vivier, or any other person, the right so to
question him."

" It is wise in the nameless to wrap them-
selves in mystery ; but remember, INIr. Un-
known, I shall not choose again to meet you
in my aunt's grounds."

VOL. I. P

314 LORD amesfort's family.

" M. le Marquis may easily avoid that, by
not coming there himself/' ^rf^rt bft& ^Jsiooc^

" Shall I be bearded thus by an obscure
stranger ?"" cried the enraged Frenchman, and
his party instantly came forward, and in vari-
ous tones, and with different modifications, de-
clared an apology was necessary. Montresor
waited calmly till the storm of tongues had
subsided, to declare not only that he saw no
necessity for an apology, but rather deemed,
that if any were made, it should be to himself,
who passing on without any desire to molest
them, had been wantonly attacked by them.
M. De Vivier angrily exclaimed, " No satisfac-
tion could be demanded of him, other than
sending him out of the kingdom ;"" but one of
his companions called out, " You forgot. Mon-
sieur is in the army, and therefore nothing
need prevent your taking satisfaction in a gen-
tleman-like way.'"

" That requires proof,'' sneeringly replied the
Marquis, " as indeed every thing does about
Monsieur."

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 315

,-" Adolphus quietly took a letter out of his
pocket, and handed it over to the gentleman
who had interfered. It was directed by the
French ambassador in London, with whom he
was personally acquainted, and was a brief
but polite communication, which Lord Amesfort
had begged him to give the earliest informa-
tion of, to Adolphus. The sportsmen looked
at one another, and began to think they had
been much misled on the score of the English-
man's situation. M. De Landes returned the
letter, observing, " In this case it remains only
to be settled where you meet, J\I. De Vivier
Will you permit me the honour of being your
second."

" Willingly,'' replied Adolphus, *' and leave
to you the settling of time and place, of which
you will kindly inform me ;" and bowing slight-
ly to the party, he led on his brother's pony,
and was quickly out of sight. The subject was
then loudly canvassed. Every one was of a
different opinion from his neighbour ; and, after
much talking, every one remained in full pos-

316 LORD amesfort's family.

session of his own, without having influenced
that of any other person. As Adolphus turned
into the field which led to his dwelling, he per-
ceived the youngest of Madame de Saumur's
daughters alone.

" You are far from home, Mademoiselle
Julienne,**' said he, as he passed her. " Have
you missed your way, and will you allow me
the pleasure of setting you right ?^''

" I am quite right since I have found you,''
said she eagerly ; " but I am very weary, so I
hope you are going home, and then you shall
know why I am rambling over the country by
rayself."

Julienne was a lively girl, just entering
her teens, but low in stature and infantine in
manner, which gave her an appearance more
youthful than her years. Having a very
quick conception, she turned this to ac-
count, and said and did whatever she chose,
satisfied that her family would say, " It is
only the child." She had heard her sisters
speak of the tumult at the Theatre on the pre-

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 317

ceding night, and her curiosity to know from
whence arose the bitterness of her cousins to-
wards the young Englishman, roused her at-
tention to every trifle. She soon got to the
bottom of the business, and while her married
sister made matters worse, by defending and
applauding !Montresor, she sat considering how
she could save him any further trouble. She
foresaw that the sportsmen meeting him must
produce a quarrel, which would probably end
in a duel, and she thought if she could keep
him at home this day, the storm might blow
over, and that by insinuating how much her
mother would be hurt should any altercation
between himself and her nephew take place, he
might be prepared for moderation in future.
She did not want an excuse for her walk, for
some time ago Adolphus had promised to get
her seeds of some rare flower, from England ;
and had this not been the case, Julienne's wits
were sharp enough to forge one that would
answer every purpose as well — so taking her
Bonne with her, she sallied forth on her ex-

318 LORD amesfort's family.

pedition. The old woman frequently remon-
strated on the needless length of their walk, but
Julienne was deaf to all she could urge. She
had already said more than once, *' only ano-
ther field, dear Bonne,'''' when the attendant
growing sulky, as she saw no end to the fields,
sat down to rest herself, as she said.

Adolphus, who did not feel that Madame De
Saumur would rejoice at hearing that her daugh-
ter, young as she was, had paid him a visit by
herself, was relieved at sight of Mademoiselle
Blumar, and pressed her to rest herself at his
house.

" Monsieur est bien honnete,''' said the old
woman, recovering her good humour at the un-
expected attention of a handsome cavalier, and
readily acceded to the request. As she passed
on, leaning in triumph on the proffered arm of
Montresor, Julienne chatted to Algernon, ask-
ing him, with apparent simplicity, which way
he had been riding, and whom he had met.
Julienne saw by his answers that she was too
late, and the person to watch now seemed

LORD AMESFORT'S FAMILY. 319

rather to be M. De Vivier. She never once
alluded, therefore, to the object of her visit,
when she found herself in ^lontresor's cheerful
parlour, but employed her time in compassion-
ating the fatigue of her Bonne, or in rummag-
ing the books and drawings scattered on the
table, to find verses, which she asserted the
Englishman had written in her praise. Adol-
phus smiled, and assured her he was no poet ;
but she told him she had made many, and
would not despair of having the same effect on
him. " What a strange mixture of childish-
ness and coquetry,'' thought he, as he returned
from conducting Julienne de Saumur through
his little garden, which was her nearest way
home ; " how unlike an English child !''

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME

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